The Six Doctors
by T. R. Myers
Summary: After the Black Guardian failed to manipulate Vislor Turlough and kill the Doctor, he promised a third reckoning. Now, four incarnations of the Doctor and his meta-crisis find themselves being drawn to one another as time changes around them. Has the Black Guardian acquired the Key to Time? The 11th, 10th, 10th double, 9th, 8th, and 4th Doctor.
1. The Reckoning

The TARDIS.

His TARDIS.

The Doctor's TARDIS.

The Doctor's home.

Here, he was free, alive, comfy, the way his bow-tie made him feel. He would be here forever, outside of time, inside the cracks in the universe. Sealed them all. He sealed them all and brought back the stars. Silence fell and the Doctor rose. He had vanquished the Silence. Hadn't he?

"Yes, Doctor. Keep forgetting. I'll remember for the both of us."

Funny, that. The Doctor was supposed to be the only one here. This was not-time/space, after all. Only a Time Lord could exist here, right? Was there another being that could exist here? No. Couldn't be.

"Typical arrogance, Doctor. You have rather a high opinion of yourself. Just because Gallifrey is the oldest and greatest civilization in all of time, doesn't mean there aren't beings above you."

The Doctor looked for the voice, and found its source. There, seated, apparently though the seat could not be seen was an elderly man, heavyset, with black hair in a black, sparkling robe. A vulture lay upon his head as a skullcap. The Doctor felt sick. Arrogance, indeed. There were beings greater than the Time Lords, and the Doctor, some time ago, had rather insultingly outsmarted one of them.

"I told you, didn't I? There would be a final reckoning. Not now, though. Now, you have a wedding to attend."

Then Amy Pond's piercing shriek shattered his eardrums. "You are late for my wedding!"

The Doctor sat bolt upright, as if spring-loaded. He felt his coat, for surely he was not appropriately dressed for a wedding. Nope. He was wearing a tuxedo, complete with cufflinks and coattails. He reached for his fez. Uh, no, that was a top hat. He felt around his neck and encountered a fine silk scarf, probably white. He should have checked, but didn't, as it was probably white. He looked down. Yeah, definitely white. Damn. He looked good. He even had perfect white gloves. He looked around the TARDIS console room. The Doctor had been sure that the Black Guardian had been there, but now there was no sign of him.

The Doctor stepped outside of the TARDIS, to find himself facing a crowd of stunned revelers. Rory Williams looked at his wife and back in shock and said, "How could we have forgotten the Doctor?"

Amy, for her part, could stun any mortal in her path. She stood tall in her wedding gown, her eyes set in an intense stare, directly at the Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor wasn't so raggedy. Even so, he wasn't missing her wedding. Of all of the invitees, the Doctor was one man whose attendance was mandatory. The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

"You could have kept the key," said Romana.

The Doctor looked over and there was Romana standing next to him. Amy and Rory were gone, as were the wedding goers. They were on a brick path walking along a copse. It was a beautiful day. The Doctor looked down and saw his trusty old knitted scarf, brown, red, and tan, exactly as he left it, and he breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, he thought he was an idiot with an unhealthy obsession for bow-ties and fez's.

"No, I'm afraid not, Romana, that kind of power in the hands of one man is simply too much. The Key to Time is literally the power to reshape the very fabric of the universe. It is literally the power of God."

Now the Doctor remembered where he was. He had just scattered the Key to Time and rescued Princess Astra, thwarting the efforts of the Black Guardian. It had been a trick all along and the Doctor had very nearly fallen for it. He had not once met the White Guardian until after he outsmarted the Black Guardian.

"Couldn't you have kept it to protect it from the Black Guardian? Now he knows how to find it. Just because he can't gather it himself, he could easily have someone else do."

"Not quite. Gathering the individual pieces of the key require space travel, time travel, a certain degree of ingenuity. There are very few people in this universe possessed of all three. I am one, and you are another, but how many others, Romana?"

"Who's Romana?" asked Amy.

The Doctor looked around. Copse of trees? No. Romana? No. Just to be sure, he looked around his feet. No, there was no K-9. "Well that was interesting." He looked seriously at Amy. She was in her wedding gown, dancing a slow waltz with the Doctor, who was certainly not wearing an itchy wool scarf. "Are we quite sure this is the real universe and not just an illusion within the cracks of time?"

Amy opened her mouth to answer, but the Doctor cut her off.

"Don't answer that. I would have known if this were an illusion. It's not."

"Well, get on with it." Amy had that look on her face that crossed between deep fear and extreme rage. The Doctor didn't have to wonder which way she would slip if anything happened to Amy's wedding day. If the Daleks invaded now, they would run in terror, regretting even coming near Amy on her wedding day.

"Nothing to worry about today, Pond." The Doctor gave his most sincere smile. "This is your day. You're princess for a day."

The warning signs diminished, and Pond became her charming, congenial self again. "Honestly now, Doctor. Is something serious happening?"

"Nothing that can't wait. It's already waited for almost 300 years. It can wait until Amelia Pond has had her day."

The Doctor could feel the tug of time upon his shoulder. No. The Doctor said, No! I will play your game, but you started it! I get to lay a rule down first and my rule is, not today. Not this day. You can't have it.

Just like that, the tug relented. "How very...quaint, Doctor. To move time for an outmoded, primitive Pagan Earth ritual. What is a day to a being that embodies the very universe? Have it. Have all of the days you wish. My reckoning will fall."

It was a mere whisper in the Doctor's ear, and when the threat was done, the Doctor could scarcely remember the words. He looked to his companion and said, "Romana, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

The Doctor began to wind the scarf around his wrists; bloody fidgety. He always got that way when he became convinced something was wrong. He was certain that for a brief moment, he had been the bow-tie obsessed man again. Romana had gone several paces before she realized the Doctor had stopped walking. She turned to look at him, concern etched across her features. Romana had regenerated recently. Knowing full well that only Time Ladies could alter their appearance during regeneration, she had teased the Doctor with a number of faces and bodies from Gallifrey that the Doctor would remember from his past. When she realized that he found all of those old faces from Gallifrey uninteresting, she had chosen to take the image of someone the Doctor cared more closely about, an alien, Princess Astra. She had only meant it as playful joke, but now she was no longer in her regeneration cycle, and now that she was stuck with the body, it occurred to her that choosing that form might have been rather cruel.

"Doctor, are you all right?" She asked.

The Doctor's eyes were wide, his mouth slightly agape. His over-large nose and thick, curly hair benefited the image, making him appear quite as frighteningly clever as he actually was, but this was not a good idea. The overall look of his expression suggested a bad idea.

The Doctor said, "Romana, either I am reliving my past and all of this has already happened, or I have acquired access to memories from my future."

Were it anyone else, it might have been funny, but Romana learned that however wonderful the Doctor's sense of humor might have been, this was the type of thing he did not joke about. "What is it? Are you being shown a war, your death, some unspeakable evil?"

"Twice, Romana, while I was talking to you, I fancied that I had become an incredibly young man, with an incredibly old mind. This man, who I am convinced is one of my future regenerations, has a rather humorous obsession with bow-ties and hats, strange hats preferably. As for what he is doing. He is in a tuxedo, attending the wedding of someone I suspect is his traveling companion. She is extremely important, meaning the fate of the universe rests in her hands, but this is a happy time, a wedding, and nothing seems to be amiss, except that the Black Guardian has promised his revenge."

"I don't like the sound of this." Romana was a Time Lady. She understood time in a way no human could. "This isn't a simple vision. Does the Black Guardian mean for you to cross your time-line with this future incarnation?"

"I believe he does intend that, and more. He's setting the stage, and I can't help but wonder how he's doing it. The Guardians have the power to do it, but they've never had the means. That is why the Black Guardian wanted the Key to Time. Oh, Romana, what if in the future, he somehow manages to acquire the key after all and his first order of business is to use it against me."

"He gets the key anyway and decides to use it to make you pay for denying him."

"Precisely. Come along, Romana. We have to get to the TARDIS."

"Who's Romana?"

The Doctor was struck with de'ja vu. He knew someone had asked that not so long ago, yet he couldn't remember who. The Doctor looked down at himself. Brown overcoat, blue suit and pants, red high-top shoes, just as always. Donna and Jenny looked at the Doctor with confused expressions on their faces. "I'm sorry," said the Doctor. "An old companion I used to travel with. Brilliant woman, that. She was from Gallifrey; a scientist. The only member of my species that ever traveled with me. I had a very strange moment just now. I relived a moment in my history. Just a walk through a park with Romana. She enjoyed quaint little getaways. Always learning about humans. But something was different. Time had changed." Then the Doctor realized where he was. "Time has changed! We have to get back to the TARDIS."

"What? Doctor, have you forgotten that we have lost Martha, are being hunting by soldiers, and are about as close to getting to the TARDIS as you are to carrying the Olympic torch?"

That wasn't right. That had already happened. Jenny had died. She had failed to regenerate. If Jenny really was his daughter, then she would see the changes in time. "This has already happened. We've done all of this."

Donna shook her head. "Sorry, Sunshine. Two more guesses or no points. We're doing this now! This is a fine time for you to go loopy."

"But we have." He looked to Jenny for help. "If you really are my daughter, the daughter of a Time Lord, you can see it. Donna solved the riddle: the numbers on the wall. They were the dates of the completion of each section. We learned that your age-old war had only been going on about a week and that the only reason it happened at was because of confusion over that cloning machine."

Donna's eyes were wide. Part of her thought the Doctor insane, but another part realized that he had solved this puzzler before they even figured out how much of a puzzle there was.

Jenny scrunched her face in concentration. "General Cobb shot at you, but I saved you because you were my dad and you were just trying to help us all."

The Doctor nodded, tears welling in his eyes. "Yes, you died."

Jenny shook her head. "No. It just took me a really long time to regenerate."

The Doctor threw his arms around Jenny. She returned the hug and buried her head in the Doctor's shoulder.

Donna said, "Right. Let's just clarify. We've already done this, you no longer consider Jenny an abomination, are in fact a loving father, and we still have to do all of this again. Did I miss anything?"

The Doctor, still with his arms around Jenny, said, "The Black Guardian. He's returned."

Donna nodded her head, "Right, I suspect that's a bad guy, speaking of which, that clip-clop you're hearing? Those are soldiers gaining on us."

Jenny grinned and asked, "More running?"

The Doctor said, "You bet." They all set off down the hallway, hoping to put some distance between them and the soldiers.

"Run, Doctor. Run, run, run, just as fast as you can. You can escape the soldiers. You can escape the Master. You can escape the Cybermen. You can even escape the Daleks. But Doctor, you should know you can't escape me. You flee, but wherever you go, I am there. I am always at the destination. I can be everything and nothing. There is nothing to run from, and everything to run to. Let's see you defeat me this time, Doctor."


	2. Confusion

(Author's note: I have found the eighth Doctor's overall time to be quite a bit convoluted. There is so much material to choose from and as of yet, no story of his regeneration into the ninth Doctor has been written. To simplify this oversized mountain of information, I've decided to arrange elements so that the Doctor regenerates after the destruction of Gallifrey. Anything that confuses continuity can be blamed on Eight's amnesia. Not the most elegant solution, I know, but it makes Eight's history workable, and by using his amnesia, I can use other elements of his adventures without having to delve into a lengthy and pointless description of his history.)

Confusion.

Surrounded by confusion.

What had he done?

What had the Doctor done?

The extricated himself from beneath his console, the pain of regeneration finally subsiding. He took a moment to examine himself. His nose was similar, a bit large, but more hawkish, but his jaw was more angular. His teeth were a bit better proportioned with the rest of his skull. His eyebrows were slightly shaggier. His hair was cut ridiculous short. He finally looked into the screen to see his reflection. So, this is what the ninth Doctor would look like. His fancy clothes certainly didn't go with the appearance. They were burnt and scorched anyway, with smatterings of blood all over them.

The Doctor's next thought was to look out the viewing port, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew what he would see; the ruin of Gallifrey. Instead, he went to the TARDIS wardrobe to find something to wear. He laughed. It was that manic, unhinged laugh of a man who had had a break with reality. His people were burning in fires he had lit, and he was concerned about fashion. The disassociation, the morbidity, the callousness struck him as extremely funny and he couldn't stop laughing for a time. When he recovered, the only thought in his mind was, They're all dead. I killed them and now I need to change my clothes. Then he laughed again for a time.

He stifled his mirth and looked into his wardrobe. Earth. He loved the bloody place. Loved everything about it. The fish and chips with malt vinegar. Actually, that didn't sound too shabby. The movies. Cartoons. Television. The music. Rock n' roll. The Rolling Stones. Paint It Black. Black, black, black, black, black. Black clothes for black thoughts and black memories and a black future. Black pants, black shirt, black shoes, black coat, leather. Has got to be leather. He stepped out onto the TARDIS control room. The damage from the explosion was severe. The TARDIS was making an emergency landing. On Earth.

The Doctor smiled and his mind reached for the mind of his TARDIS and he told her, "Thank you. You know just what I need, don't you?" But it wouldn't be enough. He picked up his desk clock from his study bureau. It was a music box that played Nocturne by Chopin. The Rolling Stones. Shattered. The delicate device burst to pieces as it struck the wall of the control room. The Doctor hefted another curio and sent it flying. He turned over the desk, the chair, he kicked the door into the grandfather clock, the chairs, the end tables, all of it priceless pieces of history, in most cases acquired directly from the original makers, and who cared? Who put all of this nonsense in a space ship control room? He screamed, and screamed, and cried for awhile, and then he screamed.

"I killed my own people." But a quiet voice in the back of his mind said, "They were going to die anyway."

"I'm the last of my kind." The quiet voice said, "They would have killed everyone. Rassilon was insane, you know?"

"It was my fault. I was Lord President. But I never wanted the title. When Rassilon apparently rose from the dead, I was happy to hand it to him. It never occurred to me he was madman." The quiet voice said, "But you knew. They were all mad. Arrogant. Too old, too advanced, too wise. Nature should have taken its path long ago. There's a reason nobody lives forever. Civilization should be no different."

"So why do I live?" The quiet voice said, "That's your choice. You once observed that Gallifrey had grown as evil as the Sontarans or the Daleks. Do you deny it now?"

"But every last Time Lord dead? Did that really have to happen?" The quiet voice said, "I think you know it couldn't have happened any other way. They all came to defend Gallifrey from the Daleks; even we came. It was inevitable."

She was right. The Doctor looked around and at the small compartment where the Heart of the TARDIS could come out if it wanted, she was there. He saw her briefly, and he knew it was his TARDIS. Impossibly old, impossibly wise. Against all odds, the Doctor found himself feeling better. He stood and went to his console. He activated the self-repair. "Select repair mode..." He cycled through the selections. Current setting: Steampunk 2. Options: Video Arcade. Pinball Arcade. Playroom Arcade. Classic white futuristic. Updated white futuristic. White futura. Leopard Print. Religious Gothic. Classic Gothic. Cult Gothic. Coral.

The Doctor considered. Gothic might have been a bit too dark. He wanted to live in a place that expressed his mood, not let him sit and stew in it. Coral was nice. It was dark, shabby, with plenty of loose wires. There was hope there. Loose wires could be repaired. His psyche could be mended.

"Oh, Doctor. You don't know the depths to which you can fall. Permit me to send you there."

The Doctor briefly thought he had imagined the voice, it was so fleeting. Then he realized he recognized that voice, a foe so implacable that even the Doctor had dared not challenged him, but the Black Guardian had made it impossible when he sought the key.

"Fall, Doctor!"

The Cloister Bell rang just an instant before the TARDIS pitched. The Doctor was thrown against a wall and everything went black. When he awoke, he was in a beautiful house on Earth. He looked down, and found himself wearing a green velvet frock coat, a silver waist coat, and a cravat. He reached up and found his hair to be the wonderful long hair that had grown accustomed to in all of his regenerations. He had only just regenerated. He had been shot, and now he remembered. He had searched the hospital for his clothes. The Doctor in a hospital...what a concept!

He stood and found himself barefooted. He knew that his vision of his ninth self had been no dream. It had happened. Gallifrey would turn to dust, but was the vision a warning of future events? Or did it portend something more immediate? When he saw Grace Holloway, he realized, for he remembered her. The Master, his attempts to unleash the Eye of Harmony and steal the Doctor's regenerations, it had all been sorted. Then he remembered the Faction Paradox. It hadn't been a vision. It was the past. It was the past that hadn't happened yet: the Last Great Time War.

He couldn't explain this to Grace. She still didn't understand the concept that he was alien. The sound of Puccini in the background confirmed his timing. She looked at am and said, "You're supposed to be lying down."

"I'm also supposed to be amnesiac."

"So you remember who you are?"

"Yes. I'm the Doctor."

Grace smiled and said, "No, I'm the doctor. You...are not."

"No, you misunderstand. You are A doctor. I am THE Doctor. Yours is a profession. Mine is a name."

"That can't be your name."

"You'd find my other one to be rather unpronounceable." He had remembered being distracted by everything. Now, however, he was incredibly focused. He wasn't drawn away by Puccini. He noted the stethoscope and said, "You came to check my heartbeat. I recommend you do so."

She put the stethoscope to the Doctor's chest and said, "There's still some fibrillation."

He grabbed her wrist and moved it to the side of his chest. "Try this."

Her eyes widened and after a moment she said, "You have two hearts. You have two hearts!"

"Now, do you understand that I am not human?"

She laughed again and said, "Listen. There are plenty of medical anomalies in human biology without having to explain any of them as alien. It could be the souvenir of an unformed conjoined twin."

"Then why are they on opposite sides instead of next to each other?"

"It's just one possible-"

"Grace, I don't have time for this. I am fairly certain that you have no clue what our situation is and that you do not appreciate the danger everyone on this planet and throughout the entire universe are in. I am a Time Lord. A Time Lord. This means that not only do I travel through time, but I perceive time in the same way you see the world around you. I can see its flow, its displacement. Most importantly, I can see when something is terribly wrong. I made a terrifying enemy long ago, and now he has finally come to cash his checks. He has no concern for bystanders, and likely he will use you to try to hurt me."

Grace, clearly not believing shrugged and said, "Okay, should we be calling the police? What do I look for? Marvin the Martian? Mork?"

The Doctor smiled. "He calls himself the Black Guardian, and he is the embodiment of the evil aspect of the universe. He is the essence of time, creation, and destruction, he and the White Guardian are the basis for most myths about God and the Devil."

"You know what? I was wrong. You don't need a doctor. You need a Hollywood producer."

"Are you experiencing any de'ja vu? Do you feel like all of this has happened before? That's because it has. When I was amnesiac, I wouldn't have dared to attempt this. Even when I am in charge of my full faculties, it is incredibly dangerous. Now, I have no choice. You have to know when to run and not look back, and you're not going to figure it out with your current attitude."

The Doctor stepped forward and clasped his hands on the side of Grace's head. She fought at first and protested, but as the Doctor's immediate memories flooded her mind, she stopped, allowing the information download. He gave her a brief overview of his history. Then he showed her the future he remembered, of the Master opening the Eye of Harmony and attempting to steal the Doctor's regenerations and then, he showed her the Black Guardian, his attempts to steal the Key to Time, how he had enlisted Turlough to assassinate the Doctor in his fifth incarnation, how Turlough resisted and turned on the Guardian. It lasted only a few minutes, but years worth of memories were dumped into her mind. It would take her days to sort them all, but only a few minutes to understand the general idea that the Doctor was trying to convey.

When he released her, she stumbled backward only a couple of feet. For a long time, she stared at the Doctor in anger. After a time she said, "Do you know why I'm angry?"

The Doctor didn't have to guess. He had seen her mind as well in the transfer. "Possibly, you feel I violated the sanctity of your mind. I would be angry, too, but I trust you understand why I did it and why I felt it necessary, and that you'll forgive me."

Grace looked down, then back at the Doctor. "Okay, I'll buy it. The fact that you were able to even do what you just did is so out there on my list of things that humans can't possibly do...okay. I believe you." She had a look of sudden confusion. "Wait, some of those memories weren't yours."

"No. As I said, this has all happened before. I, as Time Lord, perceive time in my full awareness. You do not, but that doesn't mean the memories you can't perceive aren't there. I simply opened them up for you so you could see what has already happened and possibly even be able to tell me when time repeated itself and came back here."

Grace looked up, sudden conviction on her face. "2011."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Doctor, I have memories as far in the future as the year 2011 and none of them have happened yet."

"Where will I be in 2011? Who will I be? Is it a past regeneration or a future regeneration?"

An edge of hysteria entered Grace's voice. "Doctor, how can I remember eleven years that hasn't happened yet?"

"The Black Guardian. He has changed time. He is manipulating my time-line, my history. He has chosen specific moments in my time at specific points in my life."

"I don't understand."

"Grace, you have already seen that when I die, I change. I become a new person. As a Time Lord, I remain the same person overall, but there are changes to personality as well. For me this has happened seven times. There are eight of me, and yet there is only one of me. This has also happened in my future so there are even more and the Black Guardian is causing our time-lines to intersect. I am being drawn to an intersection of my own time-line."

Grace held up a finger, and shook her head. "No. Wait just a damned minute. You offered to take me with you and I refused. This Black Guardian. He has no use for me. I never traveled with you."

The Doctor smiled again. "I wish it were that simple. Grace, it is true that you never traveled with me, but in the time we knew each other, I came to care about you. I share one thing in common with humans: once I care about someone, I can't simply stop."

"Oh, God," said Grace, her voice cracked with fear.

"There is no safe place for anyone who ever knew me."

"Then what do we do?"

"Our only security is in resistance. It's our only chance for survival."

Grace nodded, terror evident in her expression.

Time shifted around the Doctor once more, and he was in the TARDIS, looking at Romana. He hung his scarf and hat on a nearby rack and went to the console.

"Where are we going?" asked Romana.

"We need to locate the one piece of the key that we know where to find."

Romana looked puzzled for just a moment, and then she realized. "Now wait just a moment."

"Romana, do you think it wise to wait when the Black Guardian appears to have acquired the key by other means?"

"But Doctor, I can't meet Princess Astra looking like this!"

The Doctor grinned toothily. "You should have thought about that before you chose that form for your regeneration." Romana opened her mouth to protest but the Doctor cut her off. "There is really nothing else for it. Stay in the TARDIS if you like but we need to confirm that at least one piece of the key is still safe."

Romana closed her eyes in exasperation and said, "Alright! You're right. You are. We need to go to her. One crack out of you about Princess Astra's Time Lord twin and I'll..."

"I wouldn't think of it, Romana."

Romana let that pass. "Any idea what's happened to you, how you're seeing future incarnations of yourself?"

"Yes. Something the Black Guardian likely didn't expect. Because he is meddling with time, every incarnation of myself that is experiencing that meddling have formed something of a bridge. We are all acting independently, our time-lines having been disrupted, but we are sharing each moment simultaneously and are able to act as one, performing necessary actions over the span of centuries and millennia with almost perfect timing, each of us complimenting the other."

"It's not hard to imagine you complimenting yourself."

"Romana, can we please stick with constructive criticisms?"

The Doctor set the time coordinates and the TARDIS began her return to Princess Astra.

"Yes, Doctor. Delude yourself that you have an advantage. Believe that I don't see all. In the end, you shall fall before me."


	3. The Connection

When River Song knocked on the TARDIS door and nobody answered, she became understandably concerned. Knocking again, she called out, "Doctor?" Trying the latch, she found the door unlocked. The Doctor was sitting beside the console upon a short stool, his elbows upon his knees. His hands were beside his head, index fingers alternately tapping his temples. He had changed out of his tuxedo and he wore a fez atop his head. The sight disturbed River. He was so isolated in his mind that he didn't notice her and didn't hear her knock. That was bad. That was very bad.

"Doctor?"

He looked up at her abruptly. "How did you get in?"

"You left the door unlocked, sweetie."

"I did? How silly of me, not that it matters in the current climate."

"Sweetie, what do you mean by that?" River was growing rather alarmed. There was a manic tone in the Doctor's voice that she had never quite heard.

The Doctor stood and approached River Song. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Do you ever experience de'ja vu?"

"The sense that something has happened before? Sweetie, we're time travelers. Other people have de'ja vu. We cause it."

"Have I married you yet?"

Dread flooded River. "You've read my diary, haven't you?"

"Didn't even open it." The Doctor released her and walked around the console. "The Silence is gone. I shouldn't remember them. Nobody should remember them."

"The Silence? You mean the cracks in time."

"The cracks in time were caused by something. That thing is the Silence. We've already faced them, been married, defeated them but they've been swept away and time has been reset to this point, to Amy's and Rory's wedding day. Time has been reset for four of my incarnations. I'm attending Amy's wedding again. My tenth self is reliving the unintended birth of a clone daughter. My ninth self is reliving those moments after his regeneration when he concluded that he was responsible for the death of the Time Lords. My eighth self is at a similar point. History for each of these points has been reset and repeating itself."

If it were anyone else, River would have thought him mad. This wasn't anyone else. This was the Doctor and he didn't imagine these things. "Who's arse do I plant my boot in?"

"Not this time, River. This foe is beyond you. He is beyond even me. Only luck has saved me from him for so long."

"Who is he?"

"Have I ever told you of the Black Guardian?"

Meanwhile, the Ninth Doctor awoke to a bright light. He was lying on the floor of an unknown room. Standing up, he realized that it was a prison cell, with concrete walls and floors. He walked to the door intending to shout for his jailer, but when he grabbed the doors, he felt the door swing easily. Pushing it open, he stepped out of the cell into what looked like a prison wing, but only a few doors down, the modern cells ceased and antiquated dungeons continued down a dank stone corridor.

The Doctor called, "Is anyone there?" He simply heard his own voice echo back at him.

He walked through the dungeon until he found himself in an industrial warehouse. What sort of place was this? The Doctor was reminded a bit of the Celestial Toymaker, but he had never done anything on this scale, and there had been traps. Here, the Doctor had yet to encounter a single trap.

"Stand and fight!" came a shout.

The Doctor spun around and upon seeing a Sontaran pointing a rifle at him, the Doctor immediately turned his back to him.

"What is this? Face me!"

The Doctor raised his hands and said, "I'm no warrior. There's no honor in killing me."

"I was told you were a particular man who called himself the Doctor. If you are, then there is great honor in killing you. You are one of our greatest adversaries."

"Only because you make it so. I don't take life. I protect it." The Doctor felt bile rise up from his stomach. He felt solely responsible for the destruction of Gallifrey and the lie stung him, never mind he felt no need to be honest with a Sontaran. "I suspect that you are in the same predicament that I am. We could help each other find a way out of this place."

"Ha! I would be a fool to work with an enemy."

The Doctor slowly examined his surroundings. There wasn't much he could use. There was little way to distract the Sontaran. He wasn't even sure he had his sonic screwdriver. "I am absolutely defenseless. What honor could there be in killing a defenseless man?"

"Enough talk. Do as I command and turn around."

The Doctor felt the gun touch his back. He turned slowly, then quickly dropped his hands to the gun, wrenching it free of the Sontaran's grip. Kicking hard at the Sontaran, knocking him to the floor, he ran. He ran to the first doorway he saw. Who cared where it led, as long as it lead away from the Sontaran. Seeing some kind of drain, he dropped the gun inside, satisfied to hear the splash a long time after releasing the weapon.

The Sontaran came through into the corridor, quickly closing the distance to the Doctor. The Doctor continued running, soon finding himself in an alley surrounded by brick buildings, dumpsters and fire escapes. Looking up, there was a brick ceiling. Where the hell was he? He hit the ladder of a fire escape and began to climb. The Sontaran, close on his heels stopped at the ladder, slightly too short for it, but after an effort, managed to get on the ladder. Once at the top, the Doctor checked his coat jacket. Fantastic! He knew he hadn't forgotten his sonic screwdriver. The ladder was connected to a slide and was fully extended. Pointing his screwdriver at the bracket of each slide, the ladder came loose and crashed to the ground, swearing Sontaran and all.

"I hope you had a pleasant fall!" called the Doctor.

By reply, the Sontaran shouted an unintelligible diatribe, probably a few choice insults for the Doctor's most immediate relation. The Doctor went through a window and found himself in...a subway. "This place would drive a normal person insane," said the Doctor. "Good thing I'm not normal."

The Doctor didn't know he was on a monitor, an observer watching all that he did. "Yes, Doctor. Run around. A rat in a maze. You'll go insane soon enough...when you realize where you are. Let's tie the threads together."

The eighth Doctor helped Grace up so she could check the cubbyhole above the "P" in Police Public Call Box. There was the much needed key to the TARDIS. They opened the door just in time for an out of control motorcyclist to ride through. Both the Doctor and Grace looked inside the TARDIS to observe the biker's progress until he finally came back to the door and exited. Grace and the Doctor chose not to comment.

When they stepped through the door, Grace took in her surroundings, noting the nobs and wheels on the console, and said, "Well, this looks pretty low tech."

"Low tech?" said the Doctor, indignant. "Grace, this is a type 40 TARDIS, able to take you to any planet in the universe and to any date in that planet's existence. Temporal physics."

"Oh, you mean like inter-dimensional transference. That would explain the spatial displacement we experienced as we passed over the threshold."

The Doctor paused, observing Grace, wondering whether or not she was playing with him. "Yes, if you like."

Grace smiled, savoring the Doctor's clear annoyance, and then said, "So, off to save the universe from the Black Guardian?"

"It's not that simple. If he is simply resetting time then we still have the matter of the Master to concern ourselves with. Whether it has happened before or not, it can still happen again. I think we shall check the Eye of Harmony." The Doctor looked at his TARDIS settings and muttered, "Strange. She appears to be in perfect working order, and yet..."

Walking through the corridors of the TARDIS and into the engine room, where the Eye of Harmony could be accessed, they found a young Asian man, kneeling before the Eye of Harmony, in obvious distress. The Doctor recognized him immediately, while Grace would likely have to search her memory.

"Who is he?" asked Grace.

"You don't remember? This is Chang Lee."

"If all of this has happened before, how come I only vaguely remember him? I'd think I'd never forget anyone I met today."

"You have to understand, Grace, I may have restored your memories of all that's happened, but you are still human and must still cope with time as you perceive it. History is literally repeating itself and you're mind simply cannot comprehend that."

"But it's not repeating itself exactly, is it?"

"No." The Doctor bent down beside Chang. "Can you hear me?"

Chang looked up at the Doctor and nodded.

"Tell me what happened?"

Chang shivered and said, "The Master...I swear the Devil killed him. Never seen anything like that."

"Never seen anything like what?"

Chang shook his head. "No. Not me."

Grace stepped forward and in a soothing voice, she said, "Chang, listen to me. We're-"

"No, Grace. Give him time." The Doctor stood and led her away. "He needs time to understand what has happened. I'm afraid we can't help him." Turning back to Chang, he said, "I have someplace for you to rest. Will you come with me?" Chang didn't resist as the Doctor led him away from the Eye.

When the Doctor rejoined Grace in the control room, there was nothing to say. Seeing Chang in that state had renewed her terror of the mysterious Black Guardian. He checked and rechecked readings to be sure nothing was amiss. Whatever was happening to time did not show up on the TARDIS scanners, but the TARDIS knew something was wrong. The Doctor could sense that much.

"This game ought to be terribly boring for you by now," said the Doctor to the ceiling, loudly. "I know I've grown weary of it. Of is that your plan? Kill me with boredom? Put me somewhere and don't give me any challenges? Dispense of my enemies for me? It's very kind of you! I was just thinking I could use the peace and quiet."

"Peace and quiet is it?"

Grace let out a short, piercing shriek, jumping back at least three feet.

"Is my complacency too trying for the dear Doctor?" There stood the Black Guardian, his shimmering robe dragging the floor, his head covered by a dead vulture, his teeth rotten in his mouth. "Perhaps I should try something more creative."

The Doctor said, "What do you want?"

"Fall, Doctor!"

The floor shifted beneath the Doctor's feet. Grace flew through the air, slamming into the Doctor. They both hit the control roomwall, but thankfully, not hard enough to hurt themselves. The Doctor could hear the familiar grinding sound that could only mean that the TARDIS was traveling. The floor rocked worse than it ever had, though the Doctor wasn't quite sure. The TARDIS had been known to have its little tantrums, after all.

When the motion ceased, the lights, indeed all power, extinguished. The presence of the TARDIS was gone. Emptiness. The Doctor felt an emptiness he had never felt before. If forced to think of a time he had felt so empty, he could only say that no such time existed for he could not have known he was so empty in those days before he knew the TARDIS. If this was the first of the Black Guardian's reckoning, the Doctor had to give him credit: this was certainly a cruel revenge. Cruel enough that the Doctor dreaded what the Black Guardian could have in store for him next. The Guardian, of course, was nowhere to be seen.

Grace's voice came from his chest area. "What happened?" She had landed on top of him and was only just stirring.

The Doctor could only say, "She died."

Grace was clearly disturbed by the look in his eyes. "What?"

"She's dead."

"Who's dead?"

The Doctor stood and looked around at his world, his home. "The TARDIS. She's dead."

"Doctor, she's a ship. She ran out of power. You can recharge, refuel."

"With what? Don't pretend you understand. She's more than just a ship. She was a living thing with thoughts and needs and desires of her own. She isn't like technology you know. She has a brain, a heart, feelings. Had them. All of her living functions are gone. I suppose some systems could be brought back online but without her living essence, she'd never live again. No way to move."

Grace accepted this and said, "Okay, what powers her?"

"A black hole, compressed into the center of her drive matrix."

"A black hole?" Grace coughed as she said it.

"Keep one in your purse, do you, in case of emergency?" He looked around and said, "No, I could find a nice star with a dead solar system orbiting it, make a new black hole but it still wouldn't work. After all, the black hole this one uses is contained, otherwise we'd be dead."

"Why not?"

"There's only one way this could happen; if we were flung into an alternate reality. Understand this. Certain things operate on certain physics, and while the major rules of physics may always apply there are subtle rules that change from reality to reality. The fuel this TARDIS needs is exclusive to our universe. Unless we can find a piece of our universe here, I'm afraid there's little we can do."

"Then there's only one thing we can do; explore and find out what we can about where we are."

They checked on Chang, and once assured that his condition was unchanged, they exited the TARDIS, with no plan but an aimless hope. They examined their surroundings where the TARDIS had landed. It was cold, in the forties or fifties. They were on a gorgeous beach, where, they couldn't tell, so they followed it until they came to a road. It was asphalt, which Grace considered promising. Walking along the road, they found a sign. Grace looked at it and was relieved to see it was in English.

"Bad Wolf Bay," she read aloud. "It's in English, too, so we know we're on Earth."

"It's not in English, Grace," said the Doctor.

"I just read it. It says 'Bad Wolf Bay'."

The Doctor pointed ahead and said, "So what does that sign say?"

Grace looked and a said, "Oslo, 138 miles." Then her eyebrows knitted together.

"We're in Norway."

"Norwegians speak English in an alternate reality?"

The Doctor couldn't help but laugh. "I have news for you: most of them speak English in our reality. No. The reason why you're reading things in English is because of me, or rather the TARDIS, which bodes well because it means that something is still working on her."

Grace thought for a moment. "Do you speak English?"

"Fluently. Earth is my favorite planet, don't you know? Even if humans sometimes do foolish things. I made it a point a very long time ago to learn as many Earth languages as I could. I may be from the oldest and wisest civilization in the universe, but Earth is the only place I've ever really thought of as home."

Grace smiled. "That's actually a bit flattering." She saw two cars coming in their direction. "Think we could hitch a ride?"

They needn't have tried hard to get the attention of the drivers. The drivers pulled along side of them, and from each car, men in black suits stepped out. Grace stepped back in alarm as the Doctor took an offensive stance. From the back seat of one of the cars stepped a man with a plain blue suit, blue pants, and a regular blue shirt on underneath. His shoes were striking. He was wearing red high-tops. His hair was fantastic. Exiting the other side was a young blonde girl. She was dressed casually, wearing a white, goose-down jacket and blue jeans.

The man in blue walked up to the Doctor and inspected him. He winked and said, "It's me."

The girl said, "Has he regenerated again?"

"No, this is actually one of my previous incarnations."

The Doctor said, "I'm sorry, but are you the Doctor?"

The man blue said, "I used to be. You're the Doctor. I'm just your meta-crisis."

The Doctor smiled and said, "Well, I did think you looked rather familiar. You're a meta-crisis? I'd be interested to hear how that happened."

The Doctor/meta-crisis looked to Grace and said, "I've missed you, Doctor Holloway. Funny, but I seem to remember you refusing to be my traveling companion."

The Doctor said, "Ah, yes, a long story, which I'm afraid must take precedence. The TARDIS has died, and there is a young man inside who is in no condition to walk."

The Doctor/meta-crisis said, "We can take care of the TARDIS. Let's worry about the man who needs help. Sorry, I've been rude. Grace Holloway, Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. Rose, this is my eighth self and Doctor Grace Holloway."

"How did you find us?"

"Torchwood keeps Bad Wolf Bay under constant surveillance. We saw the TARDIS materialize four hours ago." He gestured to the cars, this time, the four muscle men piling into the same car, with the Doctor, his meta-crisis, Rose, and Grace sharing a car with Rose driving. They began a long discussion, picking up change and arranging a transport for the TARDIS in the meanwhile.

In another time, at another place, the TARDIS materialized in the palace of the planet Atrios. From inside, stepped the Doctor and Romana. The Doctor swept his scarf over his shoulder and put his hat on, while Romana kept her eyes downcast, too embarrassed to show her face now that she looked exactly like Princess Astra. She forgot all about her embarrassment when she saw the condition of the palace. The place was bombed out. Bodies that had been dead for months sprawled across the floor. Nearly half of the ceiling had collapsed, and there were charred holes along the walls.

"By the Hand of Omega," said Romana quietly.

The Doctor looked at her seriously, saw her tears and said, "Weeping for primitives, Romana?" She turned an angry eye on the Doctor. "I'm sorry," he said. "That was mean of me to say. Of course, you'd care. In spite of everything you said to me. How could you not, especially when I've cared for so long I've no more tears to spill?"

Romana's expression softened. Yes, she had chided the Doctor for his compassion for primitives, and now here she was, heart-rent on behalf of primitives. "So what does that make me?"

"A good person. One that I'm proud to know."

She felt a glow of pride at the statement, but it was extinguished by the death around her. "It's all so senseless!" She rounded on the Doctor. "He knew Princess Astra was the final piece. He could just take her like he did before! He didn't have to kill all of these people."

"Yes, but don't you see? They had stood in his way. That was something he could not tolerate. What diabolical mastermind could?"

Romana closed her eyes as if she were afraid her very soul could escape from her pupils. "Yes, that's the word for it, 'diabolical'."

"There's nothing more we can do here. Let's return to the TARDIS."

Reentering the TARDIS, Romana went to the Doctor's favorite chair and sat down. "Doctor, tell me, have you seen anything of what the Black Guardian plans for you?"

The Doctor leaned against the console and gave the question deep consideration. "I cannot pretend to know my future, but I am seeing glimpses of it. In true time, I'm not entirely certain how many times I have regenerated to date, but I know I have done so at least seven times because the Guardian has focused his interest on my eighth incarnation and every incarnation thereafter."

"So, you mean, he hasn't taken an interest in you, now? You're the one that thwarted him, and what about these little visions you're having?"

"He can't take an interest in me. I have the randomizer installed. I can only override it on special occasion, such as an emergency visit to Atrios. You might say that I'm untouchable. As for the visions? I think the Key to Time may be responsible for that. Think about it. I'm the only Doctor to have touched it, to have gathered it, to have intimate knowledge of it, and now..." he trailed off.

Romana leaned forward. "And now he is apparently using the Key to Time to seek his revenge on your future selves."

"Yes, but how did he get it?" The Doctor snarled the last two words.

"Can your future selves see you the way you see them?"

"I am their past, but time has clearly changed. They catch glimpses of memories they aren't supposed to have, but they are the focus of the Black Guardian, not me, so I am not a considered factor. I'm a random element. An element that just may mean the difference between life and death."

Well, there was a hope, anyway. Romana sat back in the chair and was given a start when a loud, smooth voice from around her ankles said, "My sensors detect unsteady heart-rate and increased saline production from the tear ducts. Conclusion: Mistress is upset. Would you care for some tea?"

Romana smiled in spite of herself. "I'd love some, K-9."


	4. Flight

For those applying to be the Doctor's companion, there are very few rules. You should be nice, have a strong moral sense, and be generally adventurous. One need not really be any of those things as the Doctor always assumes the best of all people and particularly likes challenges. Wardrobe has few restrictions also, but there is one absolute must. One should always have running shoes. It helps to like running. Anyone who wants to be a companion of the Doctor should expect to do a significant amount of running. The reasons aren't clear. Perhaps it is the Doctor's congenial nature. Perhaps it is his propensity for knowing everything. Whatever the reason, people just don't like him. As such, if a person should ever see the Doctor running, then that person should follow suit, post haste.

The Doctor liked running. Donna didn't like running. Jenny? She loved running. Of course, all three were doing a proficient job of it. It helped that a squad of soldiers convinced that their very survival depended on winning a war they didn't even know the reason for was hot on their heels. This made all three of them very good runners. As one might imagine, their minds were quite occupied at the moment, and perhaps that was the reason that the Doctor was the only to notice something amiss. So he stopped and looked at his surroundings. Donna and Jenny both stopped, puzzled by the Doctor's sudden halt.

"Doctor, could we get a move on?" asked Donna.

The Doctor held up a hand and asked, "Where are we?"

Jenny said, "It must be a part of the colony we've never seen."

"Then why is the construction style so different and why are there no numbers." The Doctor walked over to a door. It was made of wood, but that didn't seem to make a difference to the Doctor. He opened it and closed it. "We're in an office building."

Donna slowly turned around, taking in the scenery, "What...in...the...hell?"

There was a roar off in the distance, down the corridor, and all three turned in the direction the roar came from. Donna and the Doctor looked in fear, but Jenny expressed youthful curiosity.

"That sounds strange. What is it?" she asked.

"Probably nothing nice," said Donna.

They turned around to find an alternate escape route, but there were only offices and no connecting corridors. They hid in one of the offices as they heard the footsteps of soldiers approaching. General Cobb could be heard ordering his men to search the individual rooms. As the Doctor searched for a better hiding place, all activity outside fell silent as another roar, uncomfortably close, blasted nearby. The Doctor chanced cracking the door open to see what was happening.

The soldiers stood agape, staring at a massive creature. It had an indistinct face that was composed of nothing more than glowing eyes and a mouth and it was covered in red fur. It was humanoid in appearance, but enormous. It was a Yeti. The creature, which the Doctor knew to be a robot, would likely be unharmed by the soldiers weapons. It didn't matter at any rate because the creature attacked first. Two soldiers were thrown with such force that their spines could be heard breaking from down the corridor where they landed. The soldiers opened fire and as the Doctor expected, there was no effect except to infuriate the creature.

The Doctor rose and prepared to run out the door when Donna grabbed his wrist, shaking her head.

"It'll kill them," said the Doctor.

"They'll kill us!"

"Not good enough."

The Doctor broke free from Donna's grip and flung open the door. The Yeti was just turning to see who the newcomer was, but not fast enough to keep the Doctor from leaping on its back. The Doctor held on with one hand, and with the other hand, waved his sonic screwdriver between the Yeti's shoulder blades. The Yeti reached around, trying to dislodge the Doctor, but to no avail. Its arms were simply too large. The Doctor opened a panel between the shoulder blades and reached in. After a moment, the Yeti stopped and stood still, fully disabled. The Doctor held a silver sphere in his hand.

General Cobb looked down at the sphere and then at the Doctor. "I thought you were a pacifist."

The Doctor smiled. "You'd be dead right now if I weren't." He held up the control sphere and said, "This is the control sphere of a Yeti. No such creature exists on Messaline, and I doubt this office complex does either." As the Doctor spoke, he heard a loud clanging noise, as if a hundred buckets were being kicked over and over again.

General Cobb said, "This must be the path to the Source!"

"I can assure you that it isn't. We're being manipulated."

"You're lying!"

The Doctor raised his hands in submission. "Believe me or don't believe me. Go ahead and chase the Source. These hallways lead nowhere except into the waiting arms of more creatures like this, and far more dangerous. These are all enemies that I will know, but if you keep on your single minded quest, you'll run into them without me. Donna, my daughter, and I have more serious problems without having to contend with you, so I wash my hands. I will do nothing to stand in your way or hinder you." With each word, the clanging got louder.

General Cobb looked over at Donna and Jenny and said, "No, you come with us, and those two are going to make sure you stay in line."

Now, down at the end of the corridor, the Doctor saw silver men appear. Everyone was looking except for Cobb. "You want some advice? Those men back there are quite impervious to your weapons. I strongly recommend that we all run."

General Cobb turned to look at the disturbance. The Doctor took advantage of the disturbance and grabbed Donna and Jenny by the wrists.

Jenny asked, "Who are they?"

"Cybermen. Just run!" Nobody paid the trio any mind as they fled the impending attack.

Donna said, "What about what you said about not letting them get killed?"

"Do you honestly think I'm going to be able to prevent a fire-fight between the Cybermen and that lot?"

"Doctor, have you noticed? We're in a shopping mall now!"

As a point of fact, the Doctor had noticed the change in scenery. They all stopped running, and sure enough, it was an abandoned shopping mall. The Doctor looked behind them. They had just come from a service tunnel. Ahead of them was a maintenance walkway. "Let's not stay here," the Doctor said. As he approached the door for the maintenance tunnel, it slammed open and they were faced with a man with short hair, a leather jacket, and black pants.

"Oh, no," the Doctor said, "not you."

"Not me?" said the man. "What's wrong with me?"

"You're me. That's what's wrong with you."

"I'm you?" The ninth Doctor said, examining the tenth Doctor more closely. "Not much to look at, am I?"

"Lovely. What are you running from?"

"Sontarans. You?"

"I'll trade you. I have Cybermen behind me."

Nine looked behind him and said, "I've got a better idea. We should stay together, given the circumstances."

Ten looked into the mall, taking in the unoccupied, fully stocked stores. "The mall would be a good place to gather provisions."

"Fantastic. After you then?"

"Allons-y!"

The four of them ran into the shopping center past a fountain and a set of escalators. A grand piano with the name "Yamaha" emblazoned upon it sat beside the escalators on a black steel y-frame dolly. Taking in their surroundings, they found that the closest stores to them were "Talia Jewelers", "Feng Shui Concepts", and "The Gap". Examining the other side of the corridor, they found the entrance to a video arcade. Running inside, they each took positions to observe the corridor.

The tenth Doctor said, "Donna Noble, Jenny, this is my ninth self. Doctor, this is Donna Noble and Jenny."

The ninth Doctor regarded them coldly and then his features warmed as he smiled. "Still picking up strays, am I?"

Donna was about to say something when Ten cut her off. "Don't mind him. He's just been through Hell. He's in one of those moods where he thinks everyone who trusts him ends up dead."

Nine said, "Don't tell me it hasn't occurred to you. It's nice to have friends, but I prefer to keep them alive. Thank you." Nine went back to observing the corridor. There was still no sign of the Sontarans or the Cybermen. "How did you find them, anyway?"

Ten said, "I probably shouldn't tell you, but Donna...sort of...found me. As for Jenny, she is my daughter; the result of a progenitor machine on the planet Messaline."

That interested Nine. "You do realize that that progenitor now has a record of your DNA and will put your most favorable elements in all of its soldiers now?"

"The thought occurred, but what could I do? I was being held at gunpoint."

"How long ago?"

"Nearly twenty-four hours."

Nine's eyebrows very nearly touched his hairline. He looked over at Jenny. "Born yesterday?"

Jenny nodded emphatically. "I'm learning all kinds of things. Dad's like some kind of super general. Plans and strategies and running. We do lot's of running."

Nine laughed. "Yes, that's most of what we do." He turned back to Ten. "So, has the Black Guardian shown himself?"

"Not to me, anyway," said Ten. Ten then ordered everyone quiet. General Cobb and significantly fewer soldiers under his command appeared, running in no organized direction. It appeared that they had tried to fight the Cybermen. At some point, morale broke. The Sontarans appeared, six of them, and were briefly confused by the fleeing humans. They opened fire on everyone they saw, again cutting the number of humans in half. They were soon joined by six Cybermen. The Sontarans and Cybermen began to fight each other. Four Cyberman fell, but all six Sontarans had been killed.

Nine said, "This place is too much like the Death Zone on Gallifrey. We need to find a way out of here."

Donna said, "Well, it's a mall store. It should have rear exit for employees."

Ten said, "They're only two left."

"We're unarmed."

"I've got an idea."

Jenny shook her fists as if her father had just promised her a new car. "More strategies! I can't wait."

As annoyed as both Doctors were by that, Ten decided to take advantage of Jenny's eagerness to learn. He said, "All right, then. When in a real life or death situation with an adversary, it's extraordinarily important that you know all that you can about your enemy."

Jenny nodded, "To understand how he thinks so you can anticipate him and to know his weaknesses."

"Precisely, now the Cybermen are impervious to any weapon we would have at our disposal. They are literally people who have been forced into a tin suit and had all of their emotions taken away. All that is left is pure logic."

Jenny's eyes lit up. "So we need to behave illogically?"

Nine laughed again and said, "She's a fast learner, this one."

Donna simply nodded, "Well, it's definitely the one thing she's best at."

Ten said, "Now, let's turn on all of the game machines."

The four of them ran around the arcade, switching on machines where they could find their "on" buttons. Soon, the arcade was filled with a digital cacophony of sound as laser guns fired, race cars accelerated, martial artists attacked, lightsabers clashed, pinballs rattled, and aliens invaded. Jenny, taken by surprise, stood at attention as one machine, upon being turned on, said in a loud voice, "Soldier! You have been recruited!"

Jenny saluted and said, "Yes, sir!"

Ten grabbed her by the arm and said, "It's just a game!"

They hid as the two Cybermen entered the video arcade. They examined the machines as they came upon them.

The leader, apparently a Cybercontroller, said, /THESE DEVICES DISPLAY NO LOGICAL IN...FORMATION. THE ARE NOT RE-LE-VANT.

"Not relevant?" Nine shouted indignantly as he stepped out to greet the Cybermen. "I'll have you know that these machines are performing a very important function." He waved his hand at an image of Darth Vader threatening whoever was intended to play.

/WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

"I never found out," said Nine, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Donna stepped out and said, "They're keeping our turkey warm. Can't you see that? I mean, there's the bloody special cyanide sauce simmering now!" Donna dragged Jenny out from behind another machine. "My mother," she indicated Jenny, "always said that there's nothing like a good flight simulator to simmer the cyanide."

/THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE...

The Cybercontroller looked around and said, /THESE MACHINES WILL BE DELETED...

Ten appeared and said, "You can't destroy them. They're my life's work, and the turkey will be absolutely ruined. This woman here," he pointed at Donna, "her turkey is the best. You would be amazed at what she could do with a turkey."

/THIS...DOES...NOT...COMPUTE...

The second cyberman began to turn and flail erratically, clearly confused as to what he was supposed to do.

Nine said, "He's got the right idea. Donna Noble can sing and she can dance."

Donna said, "And I might even find your underpants."

Ten held his hand to his mouth, scandalized.

/THIS IS NOT LOGICAL

At that point, the loud and obnoxious war game said, "Soldier! You have been recruited!"

At that moment, both Doctors, Donna, and Jenny began to beg the Cybercontroller not to go because they had already lost several Cybermen to war and didn't know what they would do without him. This was too much for the Cybercontroller.

/THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. THIS IS NOT LOGICAL. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

The Cybercontroller reached up and grabbed onto the two control lines that powered his brain and ripped them free. He collapsed and twitched a few times before stopping. The remaining Cyberman, no longer having a controller, simply stopped, unable to act without commands.

Ten said, "For future reference, only try to confuse them as a last resort. Instead of listening to our nonsense, they could have just as easily decided we weren't worth their time."

Donna was laughing with glee. "I can't believe that worked."

Both Doctors looked at the carnage. Cybermen, Sontarans, and the Messaline soldiers all lay dead all over this shopping mall. It was, in fact, like the Death Zone on Gallifrey, like a game, but it wasn't on Gallifrey. There was nothing like this place on any planet. Nine began to move to the back of the arcade, clearly ready to move on.

"Oi!" called Donna. When Nine turned back she said, "Who knows how far this place goes? We need food. Best place to find it is a food court."

Nine would have simply kept going, except that she was right. "Well, lead the way, Brigadier."

Ten was regarding Donna with a reproachful expression. "What?" she asked.

Donna and Nine ventured back into the mall commons. Meanwhile, Jenny hung back with Ten. "That man used to be you?"

"Yes, he was," said the Doctor.

"He doesn't look like you."

"That's one of the things about Time Lords. When we die, we regenerate. We change. I'm still the same man he was...the same memories. The personality changes a bit. Him? He's bitter. He is the last of his kind and he blames himself. Me? I'm coming to terms with it."

Jenny nodded. "Can we choose what we look like?"

"Men can't. We can affect our overall appearance to a very minor extent, but beyond that we are subject to the progress of the regeneration. You, on the other hand, being a woman, when you regenerate, can look like anything you very well please. So long as you are in your regenerative cycle, you can you change your appearance as many times as you like until you find an appearance that suits you."

Jenny's eyes narrowed. "But it means dying."

"No, we can always choose not to regenerate, which would certainly mean death, but regeneration is how we avoid death. Here's the rub: you can only do it twelve times and that's it. No more. So there is a limit to how many times you can cheat death." He observed her for a moment, and noted the look on her face. Jenny was beginning to realize what she was, and it frightened her. "It just means you have to be more careful. You have to be responsible. You have gifts that nobody else does. You have to be careful not to abuse them."

Jenny looked up at the Doctor. "Just like a real general. Only a real general could understand his troops like that."

"Oi!" shouted Donna from down the far end of the corridor. "You two coming or are you taking up residence?"

The Doctor and Jenny both grinned and then hurried to catch up.

In another place and another time, another Doctor could feel the disruptions in time as his future selves found their existences threatened. Searching for answers in the TARDIS readouts, he carefully adjusted his course.

"Doctor," asked Romana, who was still sitting in the Doctor's favorite chair, "where are we going?"

The Doctor ran his hands through his dark, curly hair and said, "Whenever the course of time is disrupted, it creates shockwaves throughout reality. My future selves are being taken out of their time-lines. Somehow they are being returned to previous points in time and then whisked away to some unknown location. This is creating a paradox, which is affecting me. If I can measure the duration, intensity, frequency, and course of the waves, and then catalog the position of each wave in relation to each other, I can see where in time in space they meet, or at least, I can direct the TARDIS to take us there. One of the waves intersects with an alternate reality. I can't use it, and only two others have been recorded. I need a third wave to be able to pinpoint our destination with any certainty. It would be unfortunate if that many of me are being targeted by the Black Guardian, but it would certainly solve my immediate problem."

Romana stood and approached the console. "Anything I can do to help?"

The Doctor looked at various instruments before saying, "Oh, you could help me locate other disturbances."

Romana studied the readouts alongside the Doctor. It would have been gibberish to many, but to Romana, it was as clear as any book. She had been chosen to observe the Doctor because of her genius. She had scoffed when they told her that the Doctor was most brilliant mind alive. After all, he had only graduated with a score of 51. Now, having gotten to know him, she realized that his brilliance had been underestimated by her superiors. Most brilliant mind alive? How about, "Most brilliant mind ever?" He had imagination that they never dreamed of.

Then, interrupting her thoughts, the Doctor said, "Aha! There it is! There it is!" He ran around the console preparing to travel.

"You found the center of the disturbance?"

"Even better! I found the event that caused the paradox! Maybe we can yet prevent the Key to Time from falling into the Black Guardian's hands!"

"How did you discover it?"

"The event crosses my own timeline. Do you think I wouldn't notice? The details later. Time is of the essence. Even a time traveler has none to spare!"


	5. Revelation

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Still, the clanging and banging under console continued without cessation. Amy tried again. "Doctor-"

"Not now, Pond!" said the Doctor, his head popping up from behind the TARDIS. "I am securing the TARDIS."

Amy and Rory both looked over in shock to River. River said, "He's been like this since the reception." She addressed the Doctor. "Sweetie, I understand you didn't appreciate the explosion, but you don't even know who you're securing the TARDIS from."

The Doctor popped his head up again, "I told you, the Black Guardian."

Amy and Rory both asked, "Who is the Black Guardian?"

"I'll explain when I'm finished." The Doctor's head went back down.

River asked, "How are you securing the TARDIS from the Black Guardian?"

This time, the Doctor simply called out, "I am installing a randomizer."

River said, "Oh, that doesn't sound good."

"What doesn't sound good?" asked Amy, an edge to her voice.

"If the Doctor is installing a randomizer, then that means he is predicting that this foe will be able to anticipate his movements, follow him, generally be able to stroll into his life with impunity. Consider the being capable of menacing the Doctor like that. It would have to be as powerful as a Time Lord, or more powerful."

The Doctor called out, "More powerful."

"More powerful, then." River sounded exasperated.

"No, even more powerful. However powerful you imagine him to be, he's more powerful." The Doctor jumped up, as if spring loaded. "Installation is complete. Now." The Doctor activated the time rotor and the TARDIS lurched.

River, Amy, and Rory were all thrown to the floor. When the vibration stopped, they steadied themselves and found that the Doctor hadn't moved a bit.

Rory asked, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," said the Doctor.

Amy said, "Can you check?"

"The TARDIS doesn't know. I don't know and the TARDIS doesn't know which means that the Black Guardian doesn't know and that is what's important."

River said, "Okay, now who is the Black Guardian?"

"Chaos."

"So, bad guy then?"

"No! Chaos! The essence of Chaos. Chaos cannot exist without him. He is one of the six Guardians of Time. The Six-Fold-God of the Six-Fold-Realm."

River laughed, tears flowing from her eyes, such was her mirth. "Sweetie, are you telling me that you have managed to piss off a god?"

The Doctor simply nodded.

Rory said, "Tell us."

"It is a long, sordid, sorry tale, but okay. First, you need to understand who these people are. There is the White Guardian, who represents light and order, the Black Guardian, who you already know is darkness and chaos. Those are the big ones. Sort of like Jesus and the Devil, you know. The Crystal Guardian represents dreams and imagination. The Red Guardian is justice. The Azure Guardian is balance. Gold is life and death. I am giving you just the basics here. They exist in Calabi-Yau space, or the Six-Fold realm."

"Calabi-Yau space?" asked Amy.

River was about to answer but Rory beat her to it. "The dimensions of normal space. We only perceive four dimensions, but there are actually ten. Calabi-Yau space is how ten dimensions can exist in four." River, Amy, and the Doctor all stared at Rory until he began to shift uncomfortably.

"Right-o, Rory. Very good. Now the Guardians of Time all live happily in Calabi-Yau space along some others with a bunch of laws and regulations having to do with Eternals and Chronovores, but none of them are important. What is important is that they can't interfere with each other. The White Guardian can't prevent chaos. The Black Guardian can't prevent order. You get the idea. Everything is about balance. For all of the good, there has to be some evil to counterbalance it, otherwise the universe would spiral out of control like some...spacey-wacey...out of control...spiral."

"Then where do you come in?" asked Amy.

"Right. Well, it just so happens that Time Lords are high enough on the ladder of higher beings that we may occasionally interact with the Eternals and the Guardians. One such occasion happened when I was much younger. The White Guardian believed that there was too much evil in the universe and asked me to retrieve the pieces of the Key to Time. With it, he could alter the flow to time and restore balance. Indeed, with it, he could create any universe he so desired, but I didn't bring that up."

"You were suspicious," said River.

"I can understand needing to restore balance, but there is a reason the Guardians of Time have expressly forbade each other from possessing even a part of the key. For the time being, I gave him the benefit of the doubt."

"You searched for the key, then," said Amy.

"Yes, Romana and I traveled until we found the individual pieces. Our hunt led us to the planet Atrios, which was under attack by another planet called Zeos. The planet Zeos was actually a planet controlled by the Black Guardian. The White Guardian had warned me about that. The Black Guardian had kidnapped a girl from Atrios, Princess Astra. He was convinced that she knew where the final piece of the key was. I had five pieces. I could easily determine what the sixth piece was supposed to look like, so I fabricated a fake piece just to get the key partially working. You see, Princess Astra didn't know where the sixth piece was because she was the sixth piece. I managed to distract the Black Guardian with the fake and rescued Astra.

"I had a hunch. Astra trusted me, so allowed me to extract the sixth piece, effectively, but not completely ending her existence. When I told the White Guardian of the fate of Princess Astra, I knew he was not the White Guardian. The White Guardian would never sacrifice a life for any reason. He revealed himself as the Black Guardian and demanded the key from me. So I dispersed the key, each of the individual pieces going to random points in time and space, except the last one. That one I used to restore Astra. I may have also made him look like an idiot. It's done now. He vowed revenge. He tried to brainwash one of my companions into killing me. He promised he'd be back."

"So we hide?" asked Amy.

"No, it's not that simple. He's attacking my past regenerations, starting with the eighth. Curious. I can't figure out why he'd start there. He has been hijacking the TARDIS for each of them, separating them from her. I had no intention of letting him do the same here. Now that I know the TARDIS is secure, I'll play his game my own way." The Doctor manipulated the controls (toys?) of the console and said, "The only way the Black Guardian could be removing my past selves from history is if he has somehow managed to acquire the Key to Time, despite my efforts. So, when I activated the randomizer, I keyed it to intersect the nearest paradox, which would be the removal from time that I am experiencing. With any luck, we will arrive at the point in time that the Black Guardian managed to acquire the key."

He marched over to the door and turned around. "You're not going out there like that, are you, Ponds?"

Amy and Rory looked at themselves. They were still dressed in their wedding clothes.

"Where are we going?" asked River.

"We're about to find out."

After Amy and Rory changed, the four of them exited the TARDIS into some kind of temple. The walls were made of polished stone and reached up to vaulted ceilings. Great statues towered along the walls. Many were hideous, many were beautiful, all of them were fantastic. These represented more than myths though. Titans were here. The Great Old Ones, who had survived the destruction of the previous universe, were worshiped in this temple. Had the Doctor really claimed not to believe such things, once?

Coming into the main chamber, on this alien world, they viewed a statue that was distinctly Greek, even Spartan, in appearance. It held a scythe in its hand and though it looked like Greek soldier, it held itself like the Grim Reaper.

"Who's that," asked Amy, "the God of Death?"

"No," said the Doctor, "it's one of the Great Old Ones. Very real entity. The Titan Kronos, Lord of Time."

In front of Kronos, there was a cauldron. Rory went to look inside, and he stood over it, transfixed by what he saw. Finally, he said, "Doctor, I think you better come have a look at this."

Everyone walked over to the cauldron to see what had so interested Rory. They didn't know what they expected to see, but they did not expect to see a swirling star-filled proto-galaxy. Kronos must actually have lived in this temple and was likely still there. Hovering in the swirling vortex was a glass geometric shape with sharp right angles.

"It's a piece of the Key to Time. As long as we have it, the Black Guardian doesn't."

The Doctor reached in and pulled the piece out. Just a moment too late, a familiar voice shouted, "No! Leave it where it is!"

The Doctor held up the piece just as he witnessed himself running up from an anti-chamber. There he stood with that dark brown and red scarf, that matching coat and fedora, that bulbous nose with those large eyes and thick curly hair. He approached the eleventh Doctor and said, "Who are you, sir?"

"Actually, I'm you."

The fourth Doctor rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, for the love of...don't tell me I've gotten senile in my old age."

"I beg your pardon?"

The fourth Doctor fixed his older self with a stern stare. "Perhaps, you're not the most observant of my incarnations. Did it occur to you that this location and time is the center of a paradox surrounding us, and the Key to Time, and you just blindly pulled a piece of the Key to Time out of a Calabi-Yau space entry point?"

"Doctor," said River, "aren't you going to introduce us?"

The forth Doctor looked at River in surprise and said, "Young lady, I have no intentions of being rude, but we were talking about preventing a universe shattering paradox." He then smiled congenially. "Nevertheless, what are we without our manners. I, as you have undoubtedly guessed, am the Doctor."

"Doctor River Song."

"What an unique name. How did you come by it?"

"Ah, ah, ah. Spoilers."

Four smiled even more broadly. "Charming."

The eleventh Doctor gestured to Amy and Rory and said, "This is Amy Pond and her husband, Rory Williams." As Four greeted them, Eleven said, "And the young lady coming out of the alcove over there is my former companion, Romanadvoratrelundar, but I can't pronounce it so I just call her Romana." Of course, the Doctor had pronounced her full name perfectly.

When Romana finally reached them, she noted the eleventh Doctor. "Is this you, in the future?"

"Supposedly," said Four, "but I've yet to see the evidence."

Eleven was indignant. "Oh, it was an accident. It could have happened to anyone."

"Yes," Four grabbed Eleven's wrist and held it up displaying the piece to the Key to Time, "but it happened to you."

Romana asked, "What in the realms have you got on top of your head?"

Eleven said, "It's a fez. I wear a fez, now."

"It's...different."

"It's cool. Fezs are cool." Eleven held up the piece of the key and said, "I suppose I can't very well get rid of this now."

Four said, "What's done is done. All you can do is bring it along. In your defense, it has probably been so long since you hunted the key that you've lost a bit of your sense of caution. Don't. The Black Guardian has never ceased to be an incredibly potent adversary."

"Thank you. Now, I have likely woken somebody up with my lack of caution, hopefully not the fellow standing behind me."

"Yes, I would be very dismayed to match myself against Kronos." The fourth Doctor briefly considered Amy, then turned back to Eleven. "I suppose the Black Guardian failed to take you out of time because you managed to install a randomizer in the TARDIS."

"Yes."

"And yet you came here, likely first, probably keyed the randomizer to the source of the paradox. You know, the randomizer doesn't work if you don't let it, and you can't hide from the Black Guardian if you won't let the randomizer work."

Eleven stiffened, drawing himself up to full height. He spoke so quickly, it was hard to keep up.. "The purpose of the randomizer was not to hide but to maintain control over the TARDIS. The Black Guardian has been taking my past selves out of time by taking control of their TARDISes and separating them from each other. I have no intention of hiding. I have me to save."

"Fair enough," said Four. "We'll need a rendezvous point."

"76 Totter's Lane in London."

Four was taken aback. It wasn't that the eleventh Doctor had come up with a place so quickly, it was that particular address. "Ah," he said, "I haven't thought of that old junkyard in ages. Same time as always?"

"Always."

A party of six, they all walked to the main hallway. Nothing seemed to be amiss yet. It was odd that they had met no adversaries. Was the Black Guardian simply going to let the Doctors walk off with his paradox? The fourth Doctor indicated that his TARDIS had landed in a certain tributary of the main corridor. They parted with further promises of regrouping when Romana said something that quite frightened Eleven, Amy, and River.

"There are statues blocking the way."

Four said, "Yes, I see that. Romana, let's play a game. Let's pretend these statues are actually vicious monsters that will kill us if we take our eyes off of them for so much as an instant."

Romana said, "What? I thought they were a legend!"

Eleven came up from behind and said, "They are a legend. They're a horrible, terrifying, evil legend."

Indeed, three statues of winged angels deliberately blocked the path to the fourth Doctor's TARDIS. Their eyes were on the three Time Lords.

Eleven said, "Don't blink. Don't look into their eyes, but don't stop looking at them."

The fourth Doctor says, "I never heard that about the eyes. Why not?"

"Whatever possesses the image of an angel is itself an angel. If you look into it's eyes, your retinas have a tendency to contain an image of the angel. Amy made that mistake awhile back. It almost ended very badly for her. Now, let's all...very slowly...back away."

All three, unblinking, eyes wide, backed down the corridor back into the main corridor. When they backed into Amy, Rory, and River, all six let out startled sounds.

"Doctor," said Amy.

"Yes," said Four and Eleven simultaneously.

"Whichever. There are more out here. They're everywhere."

The Doctors and Romana all made the mistake of looking at the same time. When Romana looked back, it was to see one of the three angels positioned in a lunge, its hand inches from her face. Romana released a muted scream that abruptly changed into a gasp. The angel's face remained serene, but its intention was clear.

"I believe I am having a panic attack," said Romana, deceptively calm.

Eleven said, "Romana, you're a Time Lord. Time Lords don't have panic attacks."

Her calm immediately dissipated into fear as she said, "I don't care if I'm a Time Lord. I am having a panic attack. This is Romanadvoratrelunder of the House of Heartshaven from the planet Gallifrey and this is me, panicking."

Four said, "Alright. Let's not panic." Romana gave him a deadly look. "There are six of us. We can walk back to back with to each other. We can cover all views. Let's try to get to a TARDIS."

Indeed, there were more angels here than the Doctor had ever seen. The path to the TARDIS seemed opened, yet when they reached it, two angels covered its doors.

"What do they want?" asked Rory.

"Us," said Amy. "They want the time we occupy. They feed on it."

Eleven said, "More specifically, they're interested in me, myself, and Romana. Being Time Lords, we provide a bigger meal. Although, make no mistake, they'll have the three of you as appetizers. Although...turn us around." They turned until Eleven was facing the TARDIS and then he understood. "More pieces to the Key to Time." The two angels guarding the TARDIS were holding the pieces in each hand.

Four said, "This is the paradox. They intend to take the sixth and final piece from you."

"No. I have the fifth piece. They intend to take the sixth piece from you."

"What! Princess Astra was the sixth piece. They have her! She was gone. Her planet was decimated!"

"Undoubtedly, but they likely discovered that Astra was no longer the sixth piece."

Four seemed to forget about the angels as he turned to Eleven. So did everyone. The angels that were freed from the vision of the humans and Time Lords did not attack, but waited patiently. "What do you mean by saying that Astra was no longer the sixth piece?"

Eleven looked terribly sad and old at that moment. "Didn't you ever wonder why Romana regenerated after you fled the Black Guardian? Had she been injured in any way?"

Four closed his his eyes, understanding washed over him. "And I never wondered why she chose the appearance of Princess Astra."

Romana said, "I'm sorry. I think I'm missing something." That wasn't entirely true. She knew exactly what they were implying.

Eleven turned to Romana, his sad eyes staring into hers. "Romana, I've made a terrible mistake coming here, both as me and him. Even if the five of us die, the fate of the universe depends on you getting into the TARDIS alive."

All six looked at the angels, all of which held out their hands in expectation.

Romana said, "You still have one piece. Get it away from them. I'll lead them off." Then she ran. In that brief instant, everyone observed her.

The fourth Doctor ran after her, yelling for her to wait. The age of the temple made plans against him. The corridor collapsed separating him from Romana. Meanwhile, a tug at Eleven's hand drew his attention. An angel, one that had been guarding the TARDIS, had a firm grip on his piece of the key. There was no way to free it. Amy, Rory, and River all tried to get the Doctor to return to the TARDIS through the now exposed door. They were surrounded by angels and staying behind would spell their doom.

Finally, Four grabbed Eleven by his jacket and said, "There's no hope of preventing this paradox. Let them have it. They've only won the first round. We'll try to locate Romana, but we've lost the fifth piece. There's nothing you can do."

Finally, Eleven gave up his efforts and ran into the TARDIS. Once they were all safely inside, the angels pounded futilely on the outside. Four examined the console room and said, "What have you done to it?"

Eleven said, "I've made it more interesting than that drab white you always had."

"Interesting? I call it a late life crisis. Which childhood, exactly are you trying to reclaim?"

"Aren't you interested in rescuing Romana?"

"Of course I am, but I doubt we will until we retrieve the key. They've probably already converted her into the sixth piece."

Eleven observed the console and said, "There's no sign of Romana anywhere. But the sixth piece has been located. It's very close to the other five."

"I'll not give up on her. She's stuck with me this far. We'll get the key back and free Romana. First thing's first. If you would kindly retrieve my TARDIS."

Eleven set his coordinates, disabled the randomizer and activated the time rotor. In seconds, a Police Public Call Box appeared in the console room.

Amy said, "So, where should we go from here?"

Eleven said, "It's time we paid a visit to the White Guardian."


	6. Flawed Time

Amy had listened to enough. Her Doctor would and had rearranged the fabric of the universe for her, for River, even for Rory. That this previous Doctor could be so cold in the wake of Romana's loss set her blood to boil. Perhaps he noticed that her skin tone was beginning to match her hair color, because his eyebrows went up.

"Perhaps you're wondering how he plans to find the White Guardian?"

"No. I'm wondering how you can be so bloody cold."

"I beg your pardon," he said, sounding incensed, though his facial expression remained amused.

"Romana. She sacrificed herself for us."

"She did no such thing. If she was the sixth piece, the angels couldn't afford to kill her. Now they have the ultimate weapon they need to decimate all of reality."

"You could at least pretend you're interested in saving her. Don't you even care?"

Four's expression melted into annoyance. "Of course I care, Mrs. Pond. Aside from the fact that Romana was essentially forced upon me by the White Guardian, and that for the majority of her first incarnation, she treated me with superior indifference, after all we've been through, I've come to see her as rather charming and have no intention of abandoning her."

Amy looked unconvinced.

"She even dresses like me."

"She dresses nothing like you?"

"An observant little fashion queen, aren't you, but it seems you haven't observed that her little coat, scarf, and hat ensemble echoes my own."

For once, Amy, now thoroughly bemused, was rendered speechless. "Well, no, but now that you mention it. Yes, I do see it."

The fourth Doctor smiled warmly and said, "If you like, would everyone take a moment to come into my TARDIS? It should clear certain matters up."

Walking over to the TARDIS, a strange sight in the console room, everyone followed the fourth Doctor in. "Ah, memories," said Eleven. The brilliant white was blinding in contrast to the more muted white they were used to. The console looked more like 1960s sci-fi, than their more modern version's art deco. The white console was perfectly octagonal, with a clear, glowing cylinder in the middle that went up three feet. The console room was also much smaller. There was a coat rack by the door, and a robot dog wandered around. In what they all recognized as the Doctor's favorite chair, sat Romana, reading "The Other Gods", by H. P. Lovecraft.

Everyone turned in surprise to the fourth Doctor, who had gleam in his eye. "You see, there really is nothing to worry about."

Amy said, "But the sixth piece."

"They don't have it," said Eleven. "It's a fake."

Rory said, "So the key still doesn't work."

"Oh, it'll work with the fake piece. It won't be as powerful and won't work correctly, but it will work."

River said, "I get it. When they followed us to our own TARDIS, Romana knew the way to the other TARDIS was clear. She dropped the fake piece on the way so the angels wouldn't pursue her. How did you know?"

Romana said, "The Doctor had played the trick before, when the Black Guardian kidnapped Princess Astra. The Guardian didn't know Astra was the piece. He only knew that she had something to do with it. He made a fake piece and assembled the key to trick the Black Guardian."

Amy looked at Eleven. "You knew?"

"I knew the moment my younger self hauled me to the TARDIS."

Rory sighed. "That should do it for the next five April Fools Days."

Amy crossed her arms. "It was a mean joke." A grin cracked her angry expression. "Still a good trick."

The fourth Doctor said, "As it happened, I could easily recall how I manufactured the fake. It won't work, being of a mundane material, but it'll will still help the other pieces work. The Black Guardian, we already know, fell for it. He's created something of a pseudo-universe, when in reality, he thinks he is rewriting this one."

Eleven said, "He has been trapping my incarnations in this pseudo-reality."

Rory said, "So, only you and the people you know are in danger then? The universe is safe."

Romana said, "Not quite. He's removed you from time. The Doctor sensed it from the start, but he did so without removing you from this universe. Imagine there are are a thousand realities. Actually there are many more, but a fixed number will help you wrap your mind around the concept. A thousand Rorys, a thousand Amys, a thousand Doctors, all living in their respective universe, but there is only ever one Calabi-Yau space. Reality is connected."

"Not anymore," said Eleven. "The Void has closed. The realities are sealed off from each other."

Romana's eyes narrowed. The fourth Doctor's expression became sullen and serious.

"How could something like that happen?" asked the fourth Doctor.

Eleven paused. "I can't tell you that."

"Something this important?"

"We wondered why our eighth self was the initial focus of the Black Guardian's attack. The closing of the Void may be directly related to this, as it happened near the end of my eighth lifetime, directly leading to my regeneration. It is a fixed point in time affecting the entire universe and I am a key component of the event."

Four regarded Eleven for a long moment, as if trying to see what was being hidden. He stepped out of his TARDIS and into the eleventh Doctor's TARDIS. He recognized the layout. It was "Toy Room". He examined the console. Pinballs, puzzles, games, and numerous other interesting devices, including an antique typewriter represented the controls. An old man inhabited this TARDIS. He was in so much pain that he died and was reborn, starting over, leaving the pain behind.

Everyone else joined him. Now, the blue box inside the TARDIS didn't look so strange. It was just another abstract oddity. Four looked at Eleven again, as if seeing him for the first time. He considered the circumstances that could lead to the world he saw around him. Then he considered the science of what Eleven had told him. Romana knew. He could see it in her searching expression. She was also reevaluating the eleventh Doctor.

Four finally said, "How many of us survived?"

"I beg your pardon," said Eleven, not very convincingly.

"There's only one way for the Void to close: if the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey is destroyed, and there's only one way to destroy the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey."

"I'm the only one, as far as I know. I tried to go back and warn people, but Gallifrey is Timelocked."

There was a time in which nobody spoke. The rise and fall of the oldest civilization passed in those moments, and then Romana broke the silence. Though her voice wavered in obvious distress, she chose to leave the upsetting topic behind. "It doesn't change the fact that Calabi-Yau space connects all realities. The misuse of the Key to Time may well cause the Void to reopen. The Void would be a shepherd to the other realities, in essence chasing off the bad wolf."

Eleven and River both looked at Romana sharply.

Romana asked, "What did I say?"

Eleven said, "You said, 'Bad wolf.'"

"So I did. What of it?"

"Near the end of my ninth life, a traveling companion of mine absorbed the Heart of the TARDIS temporarily becoming an entity calling itself the Bad Wolf. It would have killed her, so I absorbed it, and triggered my regeneration cycle. Before that though, the Bad Wolf said that it sent clues across space and time that would lead it to me. The phrase generally tends to appear at a place or moment best suited to get the right reaction out of me. Such as now. The Void has been destabilizing for several years now. There is a rift in London at One Canada Square, or rather, several stories above it, that won't stay closed. It connects to an alternate reality, at a location in Sweden called Bad Wolf Bay."

Romana smiled. "So the Void isn't completely closed anymore."

"I suppose not."

The fourth Doctor snapped his fingers, "Then that is the window into the Black Guardian's constructed universe. First thing's first, however. We do need to consult with the White Guardian. I'm afraid that I now have no way to find him."

Eleven grinned boyishly. "Not to worry, I know exactly where he is. One of the Black Guardian's past tricks left him stranded on Earth in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."

"Oh, really? Where?"

In another reality, another group of people were having a similar discussion. At One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, Pete and Rose Tyler sat with the Doctor, his meta-crisis, and Grace Holloway. Chang Lee was in an infirmary and the TARDIS was in the main storage facility. Both the Doctor and the meta-crisis agreed that Chang's symptoms suggested that he had glimpsed the Untempered Schism. That he even survived was a miracle.

Pete, the director of Torchwood, listened to all of the statements, perfectly impassive, regarding nobody. His problem was complicated. He had to make a decision based upon the resources of Torchwood, the immediate needs of Torchwood, England, the Crown, and Earth, and needed to weigh the pros and cons of acting on any information. What did not make the problem easier was having the rambling statements of two aliens from an ultra-advanced civilizations and even worse, one of them was his pseudo-son-in-law-from-an-alternate-reality.

"Can you get this Doctor's TARDIS working, Doctor...?" he asked.

"How about, 'Smith'?"

"Smith it is."

The meta-crisis, Doctor Smith said, "It's not the most straight forward matter, but clearly the Void has been breached so the energy required must be accessible. It's beyond the capability of your resources so you don't have to worry about it. I'll handle it."

"Good, that being out of the way, you don't honestly think we have the resources to pursue this White Guardian? How do we even enter Calabi-Yau space?"

Both and Eight and Doctor Smith said, "You don't have to."

Eight said, "I know precisely where he is."

"Really? Where?" asked Pete.

"The Sudan."

In the first reality, the fourth and eleventh Doctors arrived in the TARDIS with their companions to a tent erected near an oasis in the desert. In the second reality, the Doctor, Doctor Smith, their companions and representatives of Torchwood approached the same tent in the same desert near the same oasis. There was a man sitting in the tent, tended by servants. He wore a white suit, had white hair, with white shoes, a white gaucho hat with a pearl hat band, and he had a white cane. Suffice it to say, his beard and hair were white.

As the Doctors and their companions approached the tent, the man stepped out and in a clear, gentle voice, he said, "Doctors, I've been expecting you."

The eighth Doctor said, "Thank you, it's good to see you again."

"I doubt that, considering our meetings are never under good circumstances."

"Ah, but one should always be honored to stand in the presence of one such as yourself, regardless of the circumstances."

"And has it occurred to the Doctor that he is also such a being?"

Doctor Smith grinned lopsided. "The thought never crossed my mind."

The White Guardian addressed them all. "Before this meeting begins, I should tell you that I exist here in all realities in all levels of existence. I tell you that there are four Doctors at this meeting. His fourth incarnation, his eighth incarnation, his eleventh incarnation, and his meta-crisis. You are all standing here. You can all hear my words and you all have the same questions."

The eleventh Doctor asked, "How many of us have been affected by the Black Guardian?"

Without waiting for a command, one of the servants, woman dressed in lavender silk, poured drinks for everyone. The White Guardian sat in a throne like chair and said, "There are six: those of you here, and the ninth and tenth incarnations."

"Where are they?" the eighth Doctor asked, abruptly.

"They are in a realm of the Black Guardian's own creation."

Rose, looking from the Doctors to the Torchwood members around her, expecting to be silenced asked, "So he is not directly the real world?"

"He believes he is. He does not realize yet that he does not have the complete key. That was the fourth Doctor's doing. The sixth piece of the key is a fake. The Black Guardian does not have it. He has the other five pieces because the Weeping Angels are his servants for he created them."

River was shocked to hear that. "He created them?"

"We are the Guardians of Time. We created the races of time. At one time, we all possessed a piece of the key. The Black Guardian possessed the sixth piece and with it created the Weeping Angels. From the original six races of time came the Time Lords, whom we entrusted to maintain the flow of time and to defend time from those that would exploit it."

Grace said, "But I always thought time was a relative idea."

"It is. The existence of time depends upon the very idea that nothing is real. If nothing is real, then you can create anything you want, and now that the Black Guardian has the Key to Time, he is doing just that."

Doctor Smith asked, "How do we get there?"

"I think that you already have the answer to that. There is one exceptionally clever Time Lord among us that already has the right idea." The White Guardian held out his hand to Romana. When she took it, she appeared in both realities.

"Romana!" exclaimed Doctor Smith.

Romana smiled, unperturbed by the small crowd she now addressed and said, "The eleventh incarnation of the Doctor has made it apparent that a catastrophe in the history of Gallifrey has resulted in the closure of the Void, which would make it impossible to travel between realities.. That having been said, I believe that everybody here can testify to the presence of a rift in the Void, indicating that it, in reality, is not closed. In my own reality, One Canada Square in London and an area between Earth and the sun are two locations for rifts leading into an alternate reality; the one I believe we are presently interacting with. In the other reality, the rifts locations are respectively, One Canada Square and Bad Wolf Bay in Sweden.

"The TARDIS cannot exist in a reality where the Time Lords never existed. Should it enter such a reality, it would be cut off from its primary fuel supply and effectively die unless a way could be found to re-power it. I suggest that these rifts have been created by the Black Guardian in his initial attempts to affect our universes, and instead of doing so, inadvertently created a universe between these two realities. It logically stands to reason that if the rifts exist between our realities and the Black Reality exists between these two realities, then the rifts and the Black Reality must be one and the same."

"Well that explains it, then!" shouted the eighth Doctor. "When I confronted the Black Guardian, in his anger, he attempted to send me to his false reality, but instead inadvertently sent me and Grace to the other side."

Doctor Smith said, "So we set the TARDIS down in the midst of the rift."

"The TARDIS would be in touch with these two realities and the Black Reality acting as a door between all three."

Romana conferred with the fourth and eleventh Doctor's and said, "That's our conclusion as well, which means we will have to contact Torchwood in our own reality, as the rift at One Canada Square seems to be the most accessible one."

The White Guardian released Romana, wholly restoring her to her own reality. He said, "You might be able to save your trapped selves without entering the Black Reality, but then you would not be able to confront the Black Guardian, and I think that that is necessary. Doctors, he has already attempted his revenge twice and he has failed. Expect his traps to be well laid. By now, he will be frustrated. Do not forget, that what happens to you in the Black Reality directly affects these realities. If you fail, the Black Guardian's influence will extend to these two realities, and with a deteriorating key in his possession, that could be extraordinarily dangerous."

All four Doctors and their companions solemnly observed the White Guardian as he spoke these words. Not long after, all left, on their ways to the next steps of their journeys. And in the Doctor's reality, at One Canada Square, Captain Jack Harkness was nearly asleep trying to finish a report when he heard a sound he had not heard in some time. It started as a whistling echo with a rush of wind, a low-pitched throbbing hum, and ended with a grinding sound that filled the entire office. Setting the report down, he made sure he wasn't dreaming. Then he looked full on at the device, a blue wooden box with the placard reading Police Public Call Box at the top. It was either a close cut man with a leather jacket or a man with fabulous hair in a gorgeous suit. He hadn't actually bet on a man in a tweed suit with a bow tie.

Jack said, "For once, Doctor, can't you keep the same face for at least a few years?"

"Ah! Captain Jack Harkness, adventurer and fellow time traveler, my companions and I require the services of Torchwood."

"Okay...why are you wearing a fez?"


	7. The Oldest One

The Darkness called throughout the universe. It tugged at the strings of time, demanding that its own reality be seen, acknowledged. It flowed through the Heart of Time, and the Heart of Time was broken, incomplete, tainted with a foreign element that was subject to the ravages of time. The Darkness came from the taint, struggling for dominance. It was driven by a consciousness, that much the Darkness could tell, but it was also conscious and it was a pureness that time did not expect. The Evil One thought he controlled the Darkness, that he created it, but that was not so. The Darkness had existed since the Dawn of the All Dawns. The Black Guardian did not understand that there were things beyond even him. The Darkness was one such thing. The Darkness was the oldest of the Great Old Ones.

As the Darkness spread its considerable consciousness through time and space, it caught the attention of a lonely traveler. She had been human long ago, and she had not had any companions for a very long time. She heard the call of the Darkness, the Oldest of the Old, and she heard a name she hadn't expected to: the Doctor. Yes, she had traveled with the Doctor once. She had been human. Then she had been changed by the Faction Paradox. She had been re-engineered with Time Lord DNA and she had taken the name Compassion. She remembered now, but that was long ago. Now she had a greater world, a greater purpose, and no companion to share it. She had ended life as a mortal being to become a TARDIS. That was what Faction Paradox had done to her.

She had great concerns, and the Darkness was a great concern. The Doctor had to be warned. Compassion sent her thoughts to the Doctor only to be blocked by the Darkness. It had sensed her as well! The Darkness would not be thwarted by one of the machines of the Time Lords. The Black Guardian's failed reality would be a perfect palace for the Darkness and Compassion would be a lovely trophy. It had been asleep for such a long time, and the last universe it had devoured had been so terribly small. It sat at its throne, the Black Guardian, oblivious, and spread throughout all of existence.

And at the top of highrise in London, an old time-traveler looked at himself and asked, "Did you feel that?"

The fourth Doctor turned to his eleventh self and asked, "You mean the sense that something incredibly ancient and evil from before the Dawn of All Dawns has stirred and is spreading its influence through all of reality preparing to devour existence?"

"Precisely."

"I didn't feel a thing."

Eleven shook his head and said, "I was afraid of that. Oh well, we will deal with these things in order. Right, back to business." He had been walking all over the old ghost shift chamber, waving a small black device that looked suspiciously like a cellphone in the air. Romana, Jack Harkness, Toshiko Sato, River, Amy, Rory, and the fourth Doctor all watched him incredulously as he waved the device at the wall.

Jack said, "Let me guess, that is a special device that will open the Rift and allow us to walk through."

Eleven, without turning, said, "No! Don't be ridiculous. It's a cellphone and I'm trying to get a signal."

Tosh said, "We have a land line."

"Can it call an alternate reality?"

Tosh pursed her lips. "Right, and that's not ridiculous at all."

"Ah! Here we go." The eleventh Doctor immediately dialed the phone.

In the Black Reality, the ninth and tenth Doctors, along with Donna and Jenny had found themselves in an old munitions plant, clearly dating back to the Second World War. Jenny had been quite enthusiastic about all of the guns and ammunition, but the tenth Doctor wouldn't allow anyone to touch any of it. There was still no sign of Martha Jones, and the Doctor began to worry she might trapped on Messaline.

There was a knocking echoing through the plant's manufacturing floor, nobody could ascertain where it was coming from. Donna picked up a hand grenade, which the ninth Doctor quickly took from her and gently put it back where she had acquired it. She said nothing but stuck her tongue out. As they left the manufacturing floor and entered an office, the knocking got louder. In fact, it seemed to be coming from another door opposite where they entered. After a moment, the knock didn't come back. There was silence. It was a strange feeling, but none of them wanted to hear the knocking again. Something about it frightened them.

A phone rang, startling them. All turned to look at Ten, because the ringing was coming from his pocket.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" asked Donna.

Ten pulled the phone from his coat pocket and opened it, turning it to speakerphone. "Hello?"

A bright and cheerful voice said, "Oh, I was hoping I could get hold of you. First, I need to know who's with you and if you know where you are."

The four of them looked at each other. Ten smiled knowingly. "Right. Who is this, again?"

A pause. The voice said slowly. "I'm...you."

"You're me? Which one?"

"You're next one. Number eleven! Does it really matter? Please, who is with you?"

Nine nodded.

"Our ninth self, Donna Noble, and Jenny...our daughter."

"From Messaline? Where's Martha?"

"We haven't been able to find her."

"Well, you have to. The Black Guardian is changing time only where you are, which means the little things he's doing in real time will have catastrophic effects. If she can be found, she must be found. Listen, the Black Guardian has awakened something very, very, very old. It's powerful in a from before the universe kind of powerful. You are in what could be termed as 'Ground Zero'. Whatever we are dealing with is very not nice. Do you know where you are?"

Nine said, "We appear to be in some sort of facility. Just various sets and scenery. I can't even tell you what planet we're on."

"You're not. The Black Guardian has a Key to Time with one fake piece. He tried to unravel our reality but accidentally created a new one that is slowly collapsing. You have to find a way to the center. The Black Guardian will be there and I will, too, and I'll have a way out."

"How?" asked Jenny.

The eleventh Doctor proceeded to explain his plan over the phone. Just as he finished, the knocking came back, startling everyone. On the phone in the Doctor's reality, the eleventh Doctor felt the knock rather than hear it. It went through him like electricity. Looking around him, he saw that every human, even River and Jack, responded violently to the knocking, each in terror, all of them clutching the part of their bodies that felt fear the most acutely. Jack and River both wrapped their arms around their stomachs. Amy held her hands tightly to her ears. Rory lay on the floor in a fetal position. Tosh sat against a wall, her arms wrapped around her knees.

Knock...knock...knock...

"Is that a door?" asked Eleven.

Frozen silence. Only the eleventh and fourth Doctors were unaffected, and Romana was shivering, her eyes wide. The couldn't possibly hear the knock. Then Eleven realized...they could feel it. All over the world in both realities, those who were awake stopped what they were doing to cower, cringe, scream, cry, or hide. The eighth Doctor and the meta-crisis looked on helplessly as all of their friends were hopelessly overcome with terror.

Knock...knock...knock...

Chang Lee awoke suddenly, oblivious to the catatonic medical staff around him. The creature that had come for the Master, Chang felt it all around him. The Master had left him with a last message: warn the Doctor. He got up and fled into the hallways of Torchwood. He had to find the Doctor at any cost.

Knock...knock...knock...

Eleven kept calm and spoke into the phone. "What did I tell you to do?"

Ten didn't take his eyes off the door. "To find the center of our universe."

"I didn't tell you that."

"Yes, you most certainly did," said Nine, indignant.

"Really? Well that's a rubbish idea. New plan, better plan: get away from that door. Run and don't stop running."

Jenny, swallowing her fear, took a step towards the door and said, "It's just someone knocking on a door." Bless her heart. She was doing exactly what any good soldier should do. She was ignoring an irrational fear and moving boldly forward.

"No, no, no...Jenny, my dear, generated anomaly, Jenny, born of me, listen to me. Across the universe, across time and space, across knowledge, there has been one constant: people are afraid of the dark. They grow up thinking that that fear is silly. They teach themselves and teach their children that there is nothing bad about the dark, but they're wrong, Jenny. The Dark is bad. The Dark is very bad. Children always think that there are monsters under their beds and in closets. It's because there usually are. Creatures like the Vashta Nerada, the Weeping Angels, the Silence...they all dwell in the Dark, because the Dark is their friend, it shelters them and protects them, and the monsters that people fear as children have always been there. They don't usually attack, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous, or any less monsters. Jenny, I don't really know what is behind that door, but what I sense is darker and deadlier than any I've ever faced in all of my lives, darker even than the Prince of Darkness (yes, I've met him. Long story.). Now, run."

As the two Doctors, Donna, and Jenny turned back the way they came, the door they came through slammed shut. Both Doctors wasted no time. Pulling out their sonic screwdrivers, they tried to force the door, but the force that held that door was beyond the nature of anything they knew.

A voice with a Southern American accent said, "Please, friends, a moment of your time before you leave."

Ten, Nine, Donna, and Jenny all turned around. Standing in the other door, the one that had been closed, with incessant knocking on the other side, stood a man shrouded in darkness so dark it was blinding. He wore a black suit, pants, with shoes polished to a mirror shine, a crisp white shirt, a black tie, and a black fedora atop his head. He carried a black suitcase. His face was completely forgettable; simple and ordinary. His eyes were frightening. His eyes were purest black, and if one looked, one could see stars and galaxies in his eyes. He set his briefcase upon the desk and approached the four.

He first turned his gaze to Donna. "Honest to goodness fear, but you're brave. You'll face your fear. Interesting." He then turned to Jenny, whose withering expression would terrify any man. "Defiance, but defiant fear is still fear." He turned to Ten and Nine. "Confidence, curiosity, and no fear, even of oblivion. I must say, Doctor, you keep some hardy women with you, especially if they can look me in the eye and manage to stay on their feet. I suppose you're wondering why I'm talking to you." Five chairs appeared, four in front of and one behind the lone desk in the room. "Well, I have a matter of business to discuss." He sat at the chair behind the desk.

The two Doctors were the first to be seated. Donna and Jenny followed shortly. "I don't know if you've ever heard of the Great Old Ones. Have you?"

The tenth Doctor said, "Supposedly beings existing since before the beginning of the universe."

"You're tone of voice suggests you find the idea slightly preposterous. I recommend you don't dismiss it outright. You see, the beginning of the universe wasn't the beginning of existence. It wasn't even the beginning of universes in general. Well, you know how this universe began. It didn't start from nothing. You see, there was a universe before this one, and before that one, and that one, and so on. When each universe dies, it leaves behind the material necessary for a new one to be born. There's nothing new in existence. Even the universe has been done before, many times. Well, as often as not, sentient races develop in these universes, and as often as not, when they perceive the end of the universe, they use their various technological or mystical means to survive the End of Everything. They usually don't succeed, but sometimes, they do. These survivors are the Great Old Ones."

Nine said, incredulously, "And you are one of these Great Old Ones?"

The Darkness smiled. He rested his elbows upon the desk and interlaced his fingers under his chin. "Oh, no Doctor. I am much too old for that generic title. I am the Oldest One, the First Survivor of the First Universe."

"Really, and how did you survive?" asked Ten.

"By devouring it. You see, I realized that I was part of my universe. I couldn't stop its end and therefore couldn't stop my end, so I found the only solution to that paradox. If I devoured my universe, I couldn't die as I would be the cause of destruction, and so I have survived the end of every universe. Of course, a few beings that have grown old and powerful have managed to avoid me."

"So what is your interest in us?"

"You Doctor, are the type of being with the potential to devour universes, the potential to be a Great Old One of the next universe. You are a potential adversary to me. They all are, really. You see, I am so old that I am a force of nature. I choose the path of least resistance. Plainly, this means I would prefer to avoid a confrontation with any being able to restrain me in any capacity. That would be you, any other Time Lord, such as your daughter, or Romana, who both pose an imminent threat, and some of the humans you travel with, especially one Amelia Pond."

"I don't know an Amelia Pond."

"You're eleventh incarnation will know her."

"What do you want?" asked Jenny, emboldened by the Darkness' claim that she was a threat.

"He wants to devour the universe," said Nine.

"Not all at once!" said the Darkness. "There are decaying parts that I could cut away right now, and extend the life span of the universe. The healthier the universe, the longer it takes to devour it, which is better for everyone. The universe lasts longer, civilizations last longer, and my meal lasts longer."

Ten said, "Do you really think I'm just going to sit by and let you destroy civilizations full of innocent people for the chance to live to see you do it to the next one?"

"You misunderstand me. You aren't actually a threat to me. I simply imply that you're clever enough that you could be. I would rather not go down that road, and it would be easier for everyone involved if, yes, you do just sit by and watch. I mean, Doctor, there are three destabilizing realities right here. Get rid of them and we stabilize the rest. There are other Rose Tylers, other Sarah Jane Smiths, other Liz Shaws, other Jamie McCrimmins, other Alistair Lethbridge-Stewarts, but there is only one Doctor and he can easily travel between realities. Hell, if you're that bent about it, you can even take some of your friends with you."

All four were about to protest, but the Darkness cut them off. "Don't answer yet, though I have a feeling what your unfortunate answer will be. Just take some time and think about it. I have to run now. I have a Black Guardian to disillusion."

They were alone in the office. All doors were open, they were standing, and there was no knocking.

"What was that?" asked Donna, her voice weak and wavering.

Nine said, "The Devil just tried to offer us a deal."

Jenny said, "Why only talk to us? The coward."

Ten turned to Jenny in panic. "Do not tempt fate! I have a strong suspicion that none of us would have survived that encounter if our dark friend didn't have some sense of civility."

"So," said Donna, "is your future self still on the line?"

"No," said Ten, "the line was disconnected. That shouldn't be possible with this phone."

Nine said, "Well, we can't worry about that now, can we? Onward. Our eleventh incarnation is right. We need to find the center. The Black Guardian will be there."

He marched to the door that the Darkness had appeared in and went through. The others followed him and found themselves in a mine shaft. Tracks were on the ground and the sides and the wall were rock with wooden beams, supports, and struts holding the man-made cavern up. Every twenty feet or so, oil lamps swung from hooks on the ceiling, eerie ghost lights glowing in the darkness. Digging implements, pick axes, sledge hammers, and chisels littered the floor and walls of the mine. They staid well clear of a box labeled "Dynamite".

They hadn't gone far when part of the ceiling collapsed. Fearing a cave in, both Doctors tried their best to shield Donna and Jenny from the rubble. As they watched, it became apparent that the floor of a chamber above them had collapsed. Two legs dangled from the ceiling and a young black woman fell to the floor. She landed on her feet and fell onto her backside, breaking her fall with her elbows, crying out in pain as her elbows made sharp contact with the rock beneath her. Nine was the first up and rushed to the young woman's aid.

Ten called out, "Martha!"

Martha looked over, apparently saw Donna and Jenny, then said, "I don't think this is Messaline anymore." She looked up the man offering his hand. She accepted it and said, "I'm Martha Jones, and you?"

Nine said, "I'm the Doctor."

Martha, having been hoisted to her feet, looked between tenth and ninth Doctors, evidently bemused.

"Right," said Nine, "this happens on occasion. We'll explain on the way."

Everyone quickly reassured themselves that Martha had sustained no serious injuries and continued down the catacombs. They described everything that had happened, leaving out their meeting with the Darkness.


	8. The Union

The TARDIS was positioned precisely where the Rift was supposed to be. Rose and Grace drank Coca-Colas and shared a pack of Jelly Babies while they patiently let the Doctors and Torchwood work. The meta-crisis Doctor had determined that the Rift had moved slightly and hole had to be beaten into the back wall to accommodate the TARDIS.

Rose and Grace maintained a dialogue of their experiences with the Doctor. While Grace had ultimately chosen not to accompany the Doctor, Rose spoke of the Slitheen family of Raxocoricofallapatoria, and of its twin planet, Klum, of Cybermen, of Daleks, of Ood, and werewolves. Rose told her of the End of the World, and needing tickets to attend, of the Autons, and of New New Earth. She spoke of Satellite Five, and she seemed to get sad when she spoke of the Torchwood building, of Canary Wharf. Grace realized; that was when Rose's adventure ended, and she lost the Doctor forever.

Grace cast about for a new subject, "Oh, did you know that Jelly Babies were the Beatles' favorite candy?"

"No, I didn't," said Rose.

"Concert goers started throwing them at the Beatles after performances. They don't sell these in America, so American audiences started throwing jelly beans because that was the next closest thing."

"Get out! That would hurt."

"I know. Jelly beans don't even taste like these. These are like real jelly that was firmed up. I wish they did sell these back in San Francisco."

Rose shook her head. "No, American candy is all made cheap to sell fast. Most of it's rubbish, but I do like a few things, like Sour Patch and Nerds. They'd have to import this, and then it'd cost triple what it should and then who'd buy it?"

"I would. These things are definitely addicting." Grace looked over to Rose and said, "Say that word again, Raxocorichiti-yahhh..."

"Rax-ocorico-fall-a-patoria."

"How do you remember that?"

"I don't know. It was just one of those silly sounding things that stuck in my head. You know, it's a word you know you can annoy your mum with so you just instantly remember it."

"You mean like, ''."

"Exactly. It's catchy, you know?" Rose took a sip Coke. "Thank you, now I have that song stuck in my head."

Grace laughed at this. Nobody took notice, especially not the thoroughly engrossed Doctors. The wave of terror that had struck had passed, unnoticed by humans, except Grace and Rose. Rose assured Grace that her ability to perceive things other humans couldn't had to do with her exposure to chronon particles as the TARDIS had been flung through the Rift. The Doctors chose not to discuss the terror wave, and Rose and Grace weren't certain they wanted know. Grace became alert as two soldiers entered and briefly exchanged words with the Doctors. She heard the name "Chang Lee," and at Rose's prompting, she got up and approached the two Doctors.

"He was adamant that the threat was severe and threatened the future of the world," a soldier was saying.

Grace said, "He was in an enforced catatonic state. You aren't considering that he may simply have hallucinated this?"

The soldier turned to her and said, "Ma'am, when you've worked at Torchwood for as long as I have, crazy becomes a relative term. This is actually fairly normal compared to what we're used to."

"Well, I can't argue with that."

Eight smiled and observed the exchange. "The classic scientist; always a firm believer of Occum's Razor."

"Aren't you?" asked Grace.

"The problem with Occum's Razor is that the truly simple explanations tend to be the least believable ones. For example, our good friend, Mr. Lee. The most likely explanation is that he's hallucinating, but that brings with it a whole battery of problems. Hardly simple. If he really saw what he thinks he saw and is reporting accurately, then the problem is rather straight-forward."

"Doctor, he thinks he saw a squid man eat the Master."

"And why is that so unbelievable? True, such a creature is strange to say the least, but I'm even stranger if you really take the time to think about it."

The other Doctor said, "Well, then, don't you think we should have a word a Mister Lee?"

Rather than bring Chang near the Rift, the Doctors, accompanied by Grace and Rose went down to the security office. Grace remembered all that the Doctor had made to known to her, and she knew that the Doctor had not done the same for Chang. So logically, she knew that technically they had not met yet. Still, when Chang looked up at her, she thought she saw a glimmer of recognition.

As if reading her mind, the eighth Doctor said, "He's seen the Untempered Schism. He has seen every moment of his life from birth until death, and possibly, every way in which he might die. He remembers our adventure, Grace, and if he managed to take this influx of information without going insane, he might be able to provide an insight into our current predicament."

All four of them looked at Chang questioningly. He looked back and closed his eyes. "They're right. I saw everything, but I can't see past that man." He put his hands to his forehead.

The meta-crisis approached, knelt beside him and asked, "You can't see past what man?"

"He ate the Master!"

"He...ate...the Master?"

"Yeah, he opened his mouth, and the Master sort of dissolved, you know?" Chang opened his eyes and looked meta-crisis in the eyes. "I've seen you. The man, with the squid head. He talked about you. He said your song would never end. He said you were the second heart. Your song would last forever."

"The man with the squid head?"

Rose said, "That sound's like an Ood."

Chang said, "Yeah, right. The squid head! He opened his mouth and the Master dissolved."

Rose knelt beside the meta-crisis. "The squid head. Did it hold something?"

"Right. A ball, something round. What's the word. An orb. It looked like a brain and it was on a chord that came from its mouth. The mouth-"

"Yes, the mouth he opened and the Master dissolved."

Chang looked at Rose in wonder. "You understand. You've seen him!"

"And his eyes...what color?"

"Red."

The meta-crisis Doctor grabbed Rose by the elbow and stood quickly. "That is a very bad thing." He beckoned for the Eighth Doctor, Rose, and Grace to follow him. Standing out in the hall, he said, "A few years ago, Rose and I encountered one of the Great Old Ones."

Eight scoffed. "They're just a myth. Creatures that existed before the beginning of the universe? The whole idea is preposterous."

"Yet you know just as well that nothing is impossible, especially not where we're concerned."

"But the Great Old Ones simply cannot exist."

"Rassilon believed."

"Rassilon believed they were lesser Gaurdians. He recited the legend that they came before the universe, but he never indicated that he believed it." The eighth Doctor studied his counterpart. "So you have met one of the Great Old Ones."

"Rose and I have, on an impossible planet, held in artificial orbit around a black hole. It played on the fears of the humans researching the planet."

Rose said, "It said it was the Devil."

"It said it was many things. It was a clearly ancient intelligence. It possessed the minds of one of the researchers. I explored the planet and found the actual entity. I'll admit, it was ancient, and it was impressive. Whether it came from before the universe, I can't be certain, but it left me with little doubt that it was one of the Great Old Ones."

Grace said, "So, Chang could still be hallucinating."

"I'll admit he could be, but I don't think so, and I think you'll find Rose doesn't either."

Rose hesitated a moment as all eyes fell on her. "The humans kept slaves. The were called the Ood. Apparently, the Ood hold their brains on a cord that extends from their mouths all of their lives. When they're enslaved, their brains are replaced with control orbs. Humans took them as slaves because they were friendly and very easy to conquer. The thing on that planet. It took control of the Ood and their eyes turned red. It spoke through them."

Grace was horrified, but Eight had a shrewd expression on his face. "You think the Ood are messengers, that their specific purpose is to serve as a receptacle for the Great Old Ones."

The meta-crisis said, "After encountering the Ood twice, I'm almost certain of it. The second time I encountered them, I helped some of them gain their independence. They said they would always be my friend and would tell me when my song ends. Of course, that was the other me, but apparently, my song doesn't end."

"What does that mean?" asked Grace.

"The Ood sing," said Rose. "They sing even while they speak. They don't stop singing until they die. So for them, the end of a song means death. To them, if any of us die, it means our song has ended."

Grace said, "I get it. So that means you'll live forever." She directly addressed the meta-crisis.

"Rubbish," he said, "I'm a meta-crisis. I'm half-human, way to mortal to live forever."

Eight said, "So the Black Guardian has awakened one of the Great Old Ones. I wonder which one?"

Leaving the guards with instructions to take good care of Chang and double his guard, they two Doctors and their companions returned to the Rift to await the eleventh Doctor's operation that would restore life to Eight's TARDIS, and open the door to the Dark Reality. In that exact same room, in another universe, Eleven closed his cell phone and turned to help his human friends recover from the terror that had overcome them.

As everyone recomposed themselves, Jack asked, "What was that?"

Eleven said, "A plot twist. The main villain of the story has been unexpectedly upstaged by a newcomer."

Four said, "Now, we have no clear idea of who we're dealing with or of how dangerous he, she, or it is. Of course, that can happen when a being like the Black Guardian operates a device as powerful as the Key to Time, especially when it's malfunctioning."

"It just means we need to hurry." Eleven went to the TARDIS and, wandering around it, waved his sonic screwdriver in seemingly random directions. "Now that leaves the question of who is coming with me. My past self, and Romana, I am certain will accompany me. Amy and Rory are newlyweds, and Rory has spent 2000 years as an Auton disguised as a Roman soldier. He'll be happy to be human again, and certain death hardly makes a decent honeymoon."

Amy and Rory said, "We're coming."

"Then again, Rory did impale a Cyberman with a sword. Companions like that are hard to come by."

"I'm coming," said Jack.

"You're immortal. You, me, and the TARDIS won't mix well. Still, if you want to risk it..." The Doctor continued his calculations. "I do expect River to accompany me. I remember a great deal more than I should, thanks to the Black Guardian. I remember enough to know that River is one of a kind."

River smiled. "I wouldn't miss it, Sweetie. Does that mean there are no more spoilers?"

"Not at the moment. We are ready."

Tosh said, "I'll hold down the fort, here."

Four looked at her and said, "Are you quite sure? You'll be missing quite the party."

"Someone needs to stay behind and explain what happened to Captain Jack."

So all except for Tosh piled into the TARDIS. The Doctor ran around his console with dizzying speed, hitting switches here, pulling levers there, pressing buttons there. "Now, in order to do this, we need to make sure the TARDIS lands in the Rift. Not the Void, not a universe, but in the actual Rift. We are going into the actual doorway itself. Now, if our counterpart currently trapped in the alternate reality has calculated correctly, his TARDIS is positioned specifically in the Rift. We need to target his TARDIS in the Rift. If I do it correctly, his TARDIS will appear in here, next to my fourth self's TARDIS and my TARDIS will not be positioned in any one universe but in the Rift between all three, and his TARDIS will be restored to power."

Even as he spoke, another police box appeared in the console room next to the other. The TARDIS landed with a thud.

"Now, we check outside." Exiting the TARDIS, he found himself back in Torchwood, facing his eighth self, his meta-crisis, Rose Tyler, and Grace Holloway. Stepping completely out, he walked forward, letting the fourth Doctor and the others follow him.

Eight stepped forward, a ponderous expression upon his face, looking at the TARDIS. "Brilliant; parking the TARDIS in the Rift so that it intersects with all three universes."

Eleven said, "Don't you wish you thought of it?"

"I suppose now, I will recall the maneuver and that is how I will think to do it once I become you."

Four said, "If you needed now to recall it, why don't I?"

Eight said, "Oh, my dear fellow, my greatest inspiration, I suffered from amnesia repeatedly through my current regeneration."

Four addressed the humans in the room. "You see what my future holds. My replacements are a dandy," he gestured at Eight, "a pretty-boy," indicating the meta-crisis, "and a clown," this last one directed at Eleven.

"Well, that sounds familiar," said the meta-crisis.

Eleven said, "Never be afraid to look ridiculous. What makes us different makes us worth knowing."

Four said, "I can hardly argue with that."

Rose Tyler broke away from Grace, her father, and the Torchwood staff and approached Eleven. She saw Jack exiting the TARDIS and gave him a smile. Returning her attention to the Doctor, she said, "You've changed again."

"I'm different."

Rose straightened the Doctor's bow-tie. "That's a good thing. What about me?"

"You were always different."

"What is this thing you're wearing round your neck?"

"It's a bow-tie. Bow-ties are cool." He turned and looked at Amy who just exited the TARDIS. "You can't grab somebody's bow-tie and slam it in a car door, at least not while it's being worn." Amy gave him a bemused expression and simply shrugged. The Doctor turned back to Rose. "She must not remember."

"And the fez?"

"A recent addition. It's rather striking, don't you think?"

"It's you."

"I knew you'd understand." He smiled and said, "Go say, hello, to Jack. He hasn't seen you in a hundred years."

Rose's eyebrows drew together.

"The Bad Wolf incident made him immortal."

"No..."

"Don't worry about it. He hasn't changed a bit. And don't blame yourself." The Doctor took Rose's hand, and he saw a ring. "I told you it would work out." He patted her shoulder, and Rose smiled, going to Jack.

Eleven walked up to Pete and shook his hand. "Pete, look at this place. You've done a bang-up job."

Pete could only say, "How many of you are there?"

"At the moment, too many."

Everyone traded introductions and Eleven elaborated on the next stage of his plan. Everyone listened patiently, waiting for the Doctor to finish. When he did, the other Doctors could find nothing they disagreed with. However, there were other matters, and Four was the first voice of dissent.

The fourth Doctor said, "Before we implement this part of the plan, we need to make an effort to identify this new adversary. The Black Guardian is waiting, but he has summoned something that I don't think he fully expected."

"Why so many people?" asked Pete. "Couldn't some stay here?"

"Absolutely not," said the meta-crisis. "The Black Guardian wants revenge. He wants us all and if we do not come, he will seek us out."

Grace, incredulous, said, "So the safest place for us is in the Heart of Madness?"

"No," said Eight, "there's no safe place at all, and we would rather you stay where we can at least look after you."

Eleven clapped his hands together, "Alright, that leaves the question of who. I think we all agree that the flaw in the Black Guardian's well-laid plan is one of the Great Old Ones. In fact, he said he was the Oldest One, or at least, that was what I heard before my signal cut off."

Four said, "And we all agree that a being that comes from before the universe cannot exist."

"Not from before the universe," said Eleven, "from the very beginning, from the first universe. That is an interesting clue, and I think our most important one."

Eight said, "Then it claims to be the First?"

"Yes, it does."

The humans looked in curiosity to the Time Lords. It was Romana that spoke. "There was a time when time travel didn't exist in our culture. Our people believed in magic and were led by witches. We believed that our gods came from a time before the universe. You see, we thought that the universe existed on a repeating cycle just like anything else. A universe dies, the material left behind scatters, and then returns and eventually coalesces into a new universe that grows, develops civilization, and eventually dies. Yet with the fall of each universe, there are people who came from civilizations so advanced that they grew too clever for their own good, and discovered how to survive the end of the universe. These are the Great Old Ones. You understand why this is hard for any of us to believe. It means accepting that our fairy tales may be true. Imagine that we ask the same of you. What bothers us, is that as time travelers with a special interest in Earth, we can assure you that many of your fairy tales are true, so what does that say about our fairy tales?

"There came a time when science had the answer to everything, but the witches stood in the way of science. Three men, Rassilon, Omega, and an unnamed Other broke the control of the witches and discovered the secrets of time. It was those three that knew the truth, and Rassilon insisted that the Great Old Ones were real. Now, for the legend of the First. There is one particular god that we worshiped long ago, that was said to be the first entity of the first universe that ever was. When a universe is nearly dead, this entity destroys it and assures the swift birth of a new one. Until then, it lies dormant, waiting for the universe to grow old and when it awakens, the end is at hand."

When Romana finished her lecture, the eleventh Doctor said, "I think that in providing a fake piece to the Key to Time it grew unstable, and when the Black Guardian used it, reality became unstable, awakening the Oldest One. He thinks it's time to eat, but if we can confine him to that artificial universe, we may be able to put him back to sleep."

Pete said, "Well, then. I suppose our fates rest in your hands." His face had gone pale. Fear had taken hold of everyone in the room.

"How do we get there?" asked River.

"The TARDIS. That's why it's positioned in the Rift. Now, everyone here who has ever set foot inside the TARDIS must do so, or when I attempt to go into the Dark Reality, we will be drawn back here, and we can't have that. It runs the risk of stranding us all in this reality."

This statement was met with dead silence, and every mortal knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that they were caught in a Lovecraftian tale in which gods played games with little concern for the consequences to man.

River Song stared to the TARDIS. This Doctor shouldn't have known all that he did, and that must have been the Black Guardian's doing. Now, that trust lay between them, and the TARDIS was her only destination. The Silence, the Teselecta, the Gangers, things that River's parents had yet to see but should have, had already happened for her and this Doctor. Her only destination was the TARDIS.

Amy Pond was the girl that waited. She had waited for far too long, and when her Raggedy Doctor finally came, he saved her world, and her love. He saved her mind, her sanity, and it seemed, she had the power to save Rory. The Doctor was not getting rid of her for a while yet.

For Rory Williams, there was only one path: the path that Amy walked. She would follow the Doctor, and Rory would follow her.

Grace Holloway hadn't asked for this. She wanted a normal life, a normal world, and a normal place, but now it seemed that she would never escape the alien intrigue her Victorian Gentleman had created for her. She couldn't quite come to terms with the future memories that the Doctor awakened, for her, these being proof that she had been displaced from time, but she knew the only way out of this mess was to keep digging forward. She marched to the TARDIS.

Captain Jack Harkness was a man of few inhibitions. He would be the first to admit that he was overly promiscuous, but he tended to love the people he wooed. Though nothing of that type ever came of his association with the Doctor, he felt a type of love anyway. For Jack, though, it was need for answers, answers to questions he didn't know he had. The Doctor had that effect on people, especially Jack, and it had cost him his mortality. He went to the TARDIS.

For Romana, the choice was academic. She had chided the Doctor for barely graduating the Academy, and discovered that she was in the presence of probably the greatest genius in time and space. She had joined the Doctor for a specific task, decided to stay with him after the task ended, and now, she found that the task was not yet finished. She walked to the TARDIS.

Rose Tyler had made a promise. She would stay with the Doctor forever. That hadn't quite worked out. Yet she had the Doctor. He was half human, but he was the Doctor. Now, he was her Doctor. She looked at her ring and the matching one on her Doctor's hand. She clasped his hand tightly and together, they stepped into the TARDIS.

The Doctors followed.


	9. Into the Labyrinth

The Doctor came, obediently to his doom, just as the Black Guardian knew he would. Now, he had six in his grasp, and as a special bonus, that blasted Romana was with them. Setbacks; that was all that his problems had been. So then how had the Doctors eluded him for so long? How could he not have seen them? And where had the eighth Doctor gone when he should have found his way to the Black Guardian much sooner than now? It no longer mattered. They were here. They were his.

While the Black Guardian relished his victory, another man plotted his vengeance. General Cobb and the handful of his men that had survived the metal monsters had relentless hunted the Doctor through this bizarre labyrinth. The Doctor had cost them the source, and the war. The Doctor and his blasted genes had done it. He had known not to trust a pacifist or his stock and now Cobb was justified. One way or another, he would see the Doctor dead.

In a chamber as distant from Cobb and the Guardian as one may wish, the TARDIS, its blue walls and flashing light, appeared in a peculiar geometric corridor. The only perceivable shape was the pentagon, repeated over and over. The Doctors and their companions stepped into the pentagon corridor, whose end none of them could see. They did the only thing they could. They walked forward.

"Where are we?" asked Grace, after a few minutes of silence.

It was Eight that said, "Where can any of us be when we are nowhere?"

"Nowhere and everywhere," said Four. "All of this never existed. Better not to ask. We might find out that we're not here, either. That would be very unfortunate."

Rose said, "Well, then I hope that means that those Daleks aren't here."

Indeed, two Daleks appeared from the opposite end of the corridor. At first, the corridor looked as if it only had one path, but as they looked, they realized that this was an optical illusion of the geometric patterning. As the time travelers dove for cover, the Daleks spotted them. The leader, black with a gold dome, said, -YOU ARE THE DOC-TOR AND HIS COMPANIONS! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!-

The triniton lasers the Daleks fired bathed the hallway in deadly light. Just as quickly as the attack began, the corridor was empty. The Daleks began to search the alcoves, readily voicing their consternation. -HALT! YOU ARE ORDERED TO RETURN! YOU MUST BE EXTERMINATED! OBEY THE DALEKS! OBEY! OBEY! OBEY!-

Amy and Rory kept silent, hoping the Daleks wouldn't notice them. They were wrong. The Daleks fired on sight, Amy and Rory narrowly avoiding death. They ran between the Daleks and down the corridor, leaving the Daleks to pursue. -EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!-

The Daleks stopped when the projectiles of a primitive gun disintegrated harmlessly into their shields. As they turned, the blast of a plasma gun struck the wall near them. River Song and Jack Harkness had distracted the Daleks from Amy and Rory.

Jack shouted, "Their eyestalks are their weak points!"

River shouted back, "This isn't my first day, Captain!"

"Just making sure."

They both squeezed off a couple more rounds before diving down the same alcove. The Daleks of course pursued. As the companions all rejoined the Doctors, it became obvious that these two Daleks weren't going to be lost any time soon. Rose lifted Jack's gun, pointed it at the Daleks, shot twice and then fled down a separate corridor, the Daleks pursuing. Rose quickly made another turn and hid at the entrance to an alcove. The Daleks passed without seeing. Rose ran between them and shouted, "Oi! Daleks!" She dropped to the floor just in time to avoid the triniton lasers. Her hair sizzled and stood up. The bitter taste of galvanism filled her mouth. She opened her eyes and looked up to find both Daleks destroyed.

Jack and Romana found Rose and helped her to her feet. Romana said, "Well, you're certainly craziest one the Doctor has ever chosen. Are you alright?"

"I'm alright. My ears are ringing and I have a metallic taste in my mouth."

Jack said, "Next time, let me pull the crazy stunts. I can't die, remember?"

The meta-crisis ran down the corridor toward Rose, followed by the other time-travelers. Only Grace wasn't there. Rose's mortal Doctor pulled her into his arms and said, "Rose, what were you thinking? You could have been killed!"

"I was thinking the Daleks had to be stopped. All of us made too easy a target." Rose didn't let go of him, but held him tighter. "I didn't mean to scare anyone. I was just trying to save everyone."

Eleven put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Yes, but I think that throwing yourself in the path of destruction might not be the best way to go about it. Be that as it may, I doubt those were the only two. Did anyone see where Grace went?"

Everyone fell silent. As Eight, Jack, and River turned to search, Grace came running out of one of the invisible alcoves. "Guys!" she shouted after turning the corner, having the effect startling everyone. She paused, bemused as she observed everyone's reaction. "Sorry. I found a way out. I was running from those things and kind of just stumbled on it."

Four said, "Well then, shall we go?"

The meta-crisis finally released Rose and said, "Allons-y!"

They followed Grace's exit and continued through a chamber made of crystal. It all looked disturbingly, impossibly familiar to the Doctors, but was vague enough in their recollections that they kept going. Romana, too walked along with the air of a person trying to remember the strains of a forgotten song. She knew this place, too.

Finally, Eleven held his hand in the air, bringing the procession to a halt. "Romana, you know this place, don't you?"

Romana nodded and said, "I vaguely recall this place from somewhere but I can't think where."

"Yes, me too. I would imagine my predecessors remember it too."

Four said, "This must be someplace on Gallifrey. Somewhere nobody often went."

"Now I remember," said Romana. "This is the Memory Matrix. It's part of the Time Matrix. It records the experiences of all Time Lords."

"That's right," said Four, snapping his fingers. "When we're young, we're all brought here and our patterns are inserted into the Matrix."

Eight said, "This entire universe was intended as a gauntlet for us to face a rogue's gallery of our foes. There's no telling what we could encounter here."

The meta-crisis said, "More than that, the Black Guardian could be using this to populate this universe with our enemies."

Everyone looked nervous. If what the Doctors and Romana said was true, then this may have been the most dangerous place to be.

Four, as if reading the collective thoughts of the group said, "In that case, we should hurry on through. Onward and upward."

But the procession didn't make it more than few yards as a voice called from the left, "Doctor, you're going the wrong way."

They all looked around, and the Doctors were faced with their past, but it was Four who addressed them. "Sarah? Harry?" Peering down a side corridor was unmistakably Sarah Jane Smith and Doctor Harry Sullivan.

"Yes, Doctor, it's us, now come on!" said Sarah.

Eleven grasped Four's shoulder, but said nothing.

"How did you get here?" asked Four.

"Does it matter?" asked Harry. "We're here now, and we have to find away out. Come on. There's danger that way. Come this way."

"I think not. The day I chase shadows will be a sorry day indeed." With that statement, Sarah Jane and Harry vanished like ghosts.

"Illusions," said Romana. "Mind games to lead us off track."

"We ignore them," said Eight. "It's as simple as that."

"Simple for some," said the meta-crisis. "Perhaps this trick is too simple." Everyone turned to the meta-crisis wondering what he had to say. "Think about it, this deja' vu is more than just being displaced in time. There is a repetitiveness to this situation. We have all been here before. Multiple versions of us throughout our history taken from time and cast into an arena with a rogue's gallery of our most implacable enemies. The only thing missing is the Master."

Four said, "You're suggesting that the Black Guardian has duplicated our experience with the Death Zone on Gallifrey. The thought had occurred."

Romana said, "I don't remember that."

"We were supposed to be there. My first, second, third and fifth incarnations found themselves in that scenario. They had been kidnapped by Lord President Borusa using a time scoop. We were kidnapped too but were trapped in the Matrix. We never made it to the Death Zone, or at least I didn't make it in this form, and the spirit of Rassilon released us from the Matrix and returned us to our own time. That's why you don't remember. For me, it happened three times, and will happen once more."

They all continued on, wondering at the Black Guardian's motives. The procession broke into groups as quiet conversation was carried.

Romana pondered a moment. "I wonder when we will be trapped."

"There's no way of knowing as we probably won't remember it. It may even have already happened."

Grace said, "You know, I am glad I didn't do this. Time travel is too damned confusing."

Jack sidled up to her, a wolfish grin. "I could help clarify it a bit. You know, I used to be a time agent."

"Really?"

"Born in the fifty-first century. You know, I could look you up in 2007, or you could look me up in 2000."

Grace smiled and said, "Yeah, I think I'll have to pass on that."

"You're sure?"

"I can easily spot the type of guy that keeps a girl a in every stable."

"Well, I got you on that one. I got a few guys I look up every now and then but right now, you're the only girl I'm talking to."

Grace sputtered, recovered and said, "You're kidding, right?"

Eight said, "Now, now, Grace. Let's try to keep an open mind."

"It's not that," said Grace, "I just didn't expect it from the dashing and charming time captain, here."

Jack cast her a lopsided smile. "So you admit I'm charming and dashing."

"That's what makes you so dangerous...apparently to both genders."

"I couldn't even interest you in a drink?"

Grace's cheeks were turning red. "Look me up in 2007. I just might be interested after I've had seven years to think about it."

"It's a date."

"A lot can happen in seven years, you know."

"Oh, trust me, I know it, well. If you do get attached to someone, just remember that you owe the charming and dashing Captain Jack Harkness an hour in a pub."

Someone shushed the group. They had come to the end of the crystal chamber. They found themselves in an old department store filled with mannequins. Rose wasn't the only one unnerved. Those who hadn't encountered these creatures had at least heard of them, but then again, they really could have been simple mannequins.

"Doctor," said Romana, "are these Autons?" She gestured at the motionless plastic statues.

"It's possible," said Eleven. "In fact, given the circumstances, I think it likely."

Four said, "They'll wait for us to reach the middle before revealing themselves."

Eight said, "I think we should take the initiative."

All four Doctors said, "Run!"

The procession ran, and indeed, the Autons, seeing their trap foiled, set into motion immediately. Amy called out as a plastic bullet grazed her arm. Rory, enfolding her in his arms, found himself set upon by the Autons. He pulled the exposed gun hand of one and aimed it at another Auton, as the plastic creature fired repeatedly. They Autons staggered back and Rory found Jack pulling him to his feet. River helped Amy to her feet.

"We've been separated from the others," said Rory.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," said Jack. All around there was a high pitched whine as he and River fired into the mass of Autons that encircled them. River's gun, being energy based, had the most effect, melting and fusing plastic limbs. An Auton grabbed for Amy, but she grabbed its wrist and kicked it in the chest. Its arm pulled off as the Auton fell backward. The Auton arm took on a life of its own as it tried to attack Amy. She responded by hitting other Auton's with it. They whine grew louder, and the mass of Autons directly in Amy and Rory's path fell still.

They were shoved aside to reveal the eleventh and fourth Doctors and the meta-crisis, all three holding sonic screwdrivers. Eleven said, "Come along, Ponds. We haven't got all day."

Amy, Rory, Jack, and River took immediate advantage of the opening. Following the Doctors, they rushed past a mass of clearly dazed or disabled Autons, but there seemed an army of them crawling from the woodwork. As they rejoined the main group, everyone wondered how they would escape such a horde.

Not far from them were five others who were running from one group of adversaries after the other. They found themselves in a massive arboretum with a range of plants rarely seen in a single collection.

As they stopped to rest, Nine said, "I think we lost it."

"What was it?" asked Martha.

Ten said, "A Rastan warrior robot. We were lucky. They're the most perfect killing machines ever conceived. If it hadn't been malfunctioning, we would never have escaped."

Nine straightened up and said, "Is it just me, or does this place seem more and more like the Death Zone on Gallifrey?"

"More than that. It's like the Death Zone was the model for this place, but you know what else this place reminds me of?"

"The fiction realm. You remember, too?"

"I remember meeting Gulliver, Rapunzel, nearly cursing Jamie McCrimmon with the wrong face. Zoe was too afraid to look away from Medusa."

Nine laughed. "Yeah, but she beat hell out of the Great Karkus."

Donna asked, "What are you two giggling about? I could use a laugh."

Ten said, "Just reminiscing. Nothing like meeting yourself to bring back memories." Ten looked around and said, "Yes, this seems quite like the kind of place one can just imagine something and have it appear like that."

"Yes, this whole place seems like a trip down memory lane," said Nine.

Ten's expression hardened. "Then it shouldn't be that hard to deduce which enemies will appear where."

Nine's expression hardened, also, and he looked around, suddenly alert. "We shouldn't have rested."

"What's wrong?" asked Jenny.

"Just walk calmly," said Ten. "I may just be imagining things."

They walked calmly through the beautiful botanical garden. Despite the beautiful, relaxing setting, tension began to rise. The shadow of a threat grew in the back of their minds and they couldn't help but think that the beautiful plants were their deadliest adversaries yet. Martha thought she saw a vine move towards her, but when she looked again, the plant was as still as ever. Walking until they reached the center of the arboretum, the Doctors heard the sound they thought they wouldn't, the clicking, gasping breath of what was once a man, now become a plant, and the plants around them began to encroach, tree limbs grabbing at them, vines trying to ensnare them.

"Doctor," said Martha, "the plants are attacking."

But it wasn't the fault of the plants. They all broke into a run, avoiding the thorns of angry rose bushes, the crashing limbs of rampaging ficus', and the snarling grasp of choking vines. Two creatures, appeared from the brush, or were they plants?

"Krenoids!" called Nine. "We have to stay clear of any plants."

Jenny felt something around her ankles too late. She hit the ground with a bone-breaking thud. Winded and confused, Jenny took a moment to realize that it was Donna and her father pulling her by the hands while Martha and the ninth Doctor tried to free her from the vines wrapping around her legs. Her tongue hurt and she tasted the metallic flavor of blood on her palette. She found herself free, and hoisted to her feet by her friends. Pain racked her side, the unfortunate indicator of broken ribs. Still her legs were uninjured, and she forced herself to ignore the pain as she continued to run.

They reached the door, and found it overgrown with plants. That didn't stop them from trying to force the doors open. They pushed and worked the doors as the Krenoids got closer, their raspy breath promising death. The door moved ever so slowly, breaking free of vines roots and limbs, but not enough to permit any of them to pass. All five of them put all of their weight on the door, which finally gave, and they found themselves in a room of lit blackness. The Krenoids refused to pass the threshold. The black lit room cast bizarre glowing shadows of violet upon the time travelers.

Out of place in the room was a massive grandfather clock. It was at least twice as tall as a man and twice as wide. Nothing else was in the room, except for a terrace at one side with an unoccupied chair upon it. Jenny felt drawn quite inexplicably to the clock. She couldn't hear the Doctor's warnings. Somehow, Martha and Donna could not grasp her. The pain in her ribs had vanished. There was a tiny placard on the clock door, just under the handle that read, "Rassilon and Omega Timepieces, Keepers of Time since the dawn of time. Gallifrey." Jenny opened the door and peered inside. There were no weights, no chains. There was another world inside.

She stepped into a world of ice, though it was quite warm. The ice was decoration, epically impressive as four great stalactites hung from the cathedral ceiling, their points bracketing an octagonal control console. The Doctors, realizing there was no danger, stepped in behind her. So did Martha and Donna. Jenny examined the room...massive...far bigger on the inside. This couldn't be a clock. Violet roundels were inset along ice blue walls, a foot apart, covering the walls.

Nine asked, "Has Compassion's heart turned to ice?"

Jenny asked, "What is this place?"

Ten said, "It's a ship. A ship of Time Lords. It's called a TARDIS. This particular one was once a human named Laura. She was killed and replaced with a duplicate named Compassion."

Donna asked, "How could a person become a ship?" The horror in her expression was poorly concealed.

"An accident. Usually, TARDIS's are grown. If a living person enters the growth matrix, he or she could theoretically become a sentient TARDIS, which is what happened to Compassion. She always changed her internal appearance to suit her mood."

Jenny looked at both Doctors suspiciously. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're drawn to her," said Nine, matter-of-factly. "That means she's drawn to you."

Ten said, "The bond between TARDIS and Time Lord is essential to proper and prolonged operation. If she has chosen you, you may be a true Time Lord."

Martha said, "We have a way out then. Compassion can take us all where we belong."

"No," said Jenny. "She's trapped. She can't move."

"I suspected as much," said Nine.

"We'll need to step outside," said Ten.

"Why?" asked Donna.

Nine said, "That black room was the heart of the Dark Reality. We've reached the Black Guardian. Compassion won't be free until he releases her."

Terror swept through them all at this pronouncement. As the Doctors instructed, they all stepped outside. In that artificial blackness, they could clearly see the chair was now occupied. Normal light shed upon him. He was an elderly man in a black robe. What hair they could see was black. His nose was large and bulbous. His jaw was square and firm, his mouth straight. Atop his head was skullcap made from the skin of a vulture.

Then he spoke, a raspy, hate-filled voice, leaving his lips. "Doctor. I was beginning to think you wouldn't come."

The Black Guardian looked on, and even continued to stare at the Doctors as gunshots unexpectedly rang out.


	10. The Enemy of My Enemy

No way through, no way out, guns, sonic screwdrivers, a redhead with a plastic arm; none of it enough. As Amy held the wrist of the Auton arm, it too grasped her wrist, trying feebly to do some type of damage. Amy didn't notice. She was scrapped, cut, slashed, shot, and bleeding all over the place. They all were, though strangely, the Doctors, even the meta-crisis appeared untouched. Only their hair seemed somewhat disheveled and just a bit of dust and grime was on their clothes. The only other Time Lord, Romana was in just as harried a state as the humans, a long bloody gash adorned her forehead, and her right sleeve was mangled, the arm underneath slashed and bloodied. What was the Doctor's power to avoid injury?

Eleven said, "Our current strategy obviously isn't working. River, Harkness, you move around to the front and fire ahead. Don't worry about the sides. The rest of us will keep them off of you."

"We will?" shouted Grace.

River said, "Do you want out of here alive or not?"

Before anyone had a chance to say anything further, Rory grabbed one of the Autons and spun it around as a human shield. River and Jack took that opportunity to move to the fore of the group and began to fire into the Autons blocking their exit. Amy released the arm she wielded as a cudgel, the arm having long since given up trying to do any harm to her, and slammed into one of the Autons disabled by River and Jack, pushing it into several other Autons. Amy would later swear that the collision sounded just like ninepins. Rose and Grace followed Amy's cue, also tackling Autons and shoving them into their fellows.

In this way, the defenders were able to clear a path to a large set of polished mahogany double doors, of the ritzy department store variety. Going through, the defenders pushed the door shut, and found that the heavy duty handles were easily bracketed with a length of pipe found on the ground nearby. They were in an alley with no sky, only a brick ceiling.

Four said, "Is everybody in one piece?" He was answered by a series of inarticulate sounds as the humans and the one Time Lady grunted, sighed, or snorted their exhaustion, discomfort, displeasure, or combination of the three. "That's the spirit!" He produced a brown paper bag from within the folds of his overcoat. "Anyone care for a Jelly Baby?" Surprisingly, nearly everyone excepted the offer.

"God, that was awful," said Amy, nibbling on a grape confection. "Revenge of the eighties. They were all dressed in spandex. I swear the one I shoved looked like Pat Benatar." This got a few chuckles.

Jack said, "I know what you mean. I think I shot the lead singer for Twisted Sister."

Grace said, "Nobody in my world would ever believe this. We're attacked by mannequins and make fun of their fashion sense. What were those things, anyway?"

"Autons," said the meta-crisis, "living plastic. The Nestene Consciousness is sentient plastic, and when it comes to any world, any plastic it finds on that world can be brought to life and sentient consciousness."

After everyone had a few moments rest, Eight said, "Let's move along. This universe will only get smaller."

There was a door off in the distance; a simple, white door. It looked more out of place than anything they had seen thus far. It was quite a distance away, yet they could all see it clearly. It felt as if it was deliberately far away, just to intimidate them and fill them with foreboding. The thing was, it shouldn't have felt that way.

As they walked, Grace said, "So, Doctor. You said that the TARDIS could be drawn back away from this universe if anyone who had been in the TARDIS were left nearby. So why did you leave Chang?"

Eleven answered. "He was in no fit condition to come with us and he was only one man. I took a calculated risk." After a moment's consideration, he said, "He couldn't have staid in the TARDIS. In his fragile mental state, being positioned in the Rift between three universes would not have been very therapeutic. So that meant that if he accompanied us, he would have to make the journey with us and how do you suppose he would have reacted to the Daleks and the Autons?"

"I see your point."

When they got to the door, everyone came to a stop. Likely, it was just another chamber with some other adversary, but everyone could somehow sense that it wasn't.

Rose said, "Let's get this over with." She reached for the knob before anyone could stop her. A shock threw back into the meta-crisis, both of them landing painfully on the ground. "What was that?" Rose asked as she climbed to her feet.

"I think that only the Doctor can open the door," said Four.

Romana asked, "So does that mean the rest of us stay behind?"

"Oh no. The only out of this universe is to make the journey. We have to go together, even if you're not equal to what lies ahead."

Four reached out and turned the doorknob. The door opened inward to a featureless black lit room. Standing in the middle of that room facing a slightly raised stage were five people, one of whom was identical to the meta-crisis, except his suit, though similar, was more complete, with white shirt and tie. Amy recognized them as the clothes her Raggedy Doctor was wearing. Of course, Eleven recognized his tenth and ninth selves as well as the people with them. Eleven followed their gazes to the stage and saw the Black Guardian. He stepped free of the group to approach the stage when gunshots rang out.

Everyone turned to the startling sound and saw General Cobb and four of his soldiers fleeing into the room from yet another door. Cobb and his soldiers, realizing they were no longer pursued by whatever it was, spun around and saw the Doctor, Jenny, Martha, and Donna. Cobb and his four soldiers raised their weapons. They clearly hadn't noticed the second group, and Jack and River both leveled their weapons at the soldiers.

"Drop them!" shouted River with all of the venom and fury she could muster.

Cobb and his soldiers immediately turned and paused. River held a pistol in each hand, so did Jack, and they had taken positions flanking Cobb and his men. Cobb liked his current odds, but he didn't give the order to fire because he knew the defenders had put themselves in a position to even the odds. That had been his mistake. A good soldier observes his surroundings. "Drop yours. We outnumber you by more than double."

Jack said, "So? There's only five of you."

River clearly couldn't keep from laughing as she said, "Five is target practice."

"I promise, you'll be on the floor before you can even pull the trigger." Jack's expression was deadly serious, and everyone in the room was deadly quiet.

The Black Guardian watched, clearly amused by the proceedings. River and Jack knew how the Doctor felt about guns and killing. Against Autons was one thing, and even though the Doctor valued even the lives of Daleks, he wouldn't complain about killing them, they were certain that the Doctor would not approve if they harmed Cobb or any of his men. So while Cobb, his own weapon lowered, considered his position, River and Jack carefully chose their targets.

Cobb was first to speak. "Fire." It was over before Cobb closed his mouth. Jack shot the guns from the hands of the two soldiers on Cobb's left while River disarmed the two on the right. The expression on Cobb's face didn't change. The four now unarmed soldiers slowly raised their hands. Cobb pointed at Ten and said, "I have a legitimate quarrel with this man."

The meta-crisis stepped out of the groups and stood next to Ten. The two identical men, dressed only slightly differently smiled back at Cobb. Eleven, Nine, Eight, and Four all stood next to Ten and the meta-crisis. "Something you don't know about Time Lords," said Eleven. "We are all the same man. Consider the being that you face and have the wisdom to forget your quarrel. At the moment, I have a reckoning with a far more dangerous being than you to attend to, and all you are doing is distracting everyone."

Cobb put his gun on the floor and said, "For now, Doctor."

Confident that they could address the Black Guardian without interruption and that Jack and River would ensure that Cobb behaved himself, the Doctors each turned to face the Black Guardian.

The Black Guardian laughed, thoroughly amused and said, "Oh, the games that mortals play...you have played them for too long, Doctor. Now look around you at what has been wrought. Are these not the games of gods? How shall you save your universe, Doctor as it shrinks around you?"

Four said, "As always, your revenge is ill planned. This is not our universe, but one of your accidental creation."

"What trickery is this? With the key I brought about the collapse of your universe!"

Eight said, "Then either you've forgotten how to use it, or it isn't functioning properly. Our universe is intact and quite as large as always. The Key to Time was unable to effect it on the scale you desired and so created a universe that it could effect."

"The key's power is absolute unless..."

Romana stepped into view. "...Unless you are missing one of the pieces."

Realization hit the Black Guardian. He recognized Romana immediately. He could not be fooled by the fact that she looked like Princess Astra, and realized that she may have a very good reason for looking like Princess Astra. "A trick. You fabricated a duplicate piece. A worthless fake. It will cause the key to deteriorate, just as it did before! It could take eons for it to reform!"

"Eons you'll have to wait," said Ten.

The Black Guardian's eyes bulged.

"For your revenge," said Nine. "A revenge that will never come."

His face reddened with fury.

Eleven said, "And in the wake of your reckoning, you've awakened the oldest living thing in creation. The key is incomplete, with a fake piece, unable to effect our universe and so it created this one, a universe that was dying by design."

The Black Guardian pointed his finger in profound judgment as he said, "No matter, I have you and your friends and your enemies shall destroy you!" The black lit room vanished to be replaced by white. The walls revealed that they were surrounded by their foes. Daleks and Autons were at the right. Cybermen and Sontarans were at the left. Behind them were Silurians, obviously whom General Cobb encountered, and behind the Black Guardian were yetis, but also there was a man, in a perfect black suit, with a black hat, with a face so perfect, it might have been plastic and eyes as Dark as the deepest reaches of space.

"I don't think so," said Eleven. "I think you failed to factor in what happens when a universe dies."

The Darkness stepped forward, and the Black Guardian noticed him for the first time. "Who are you?"

The Darkness faced the Guardian and said, "Why, you of all people should know. You summoned me, after all."

The meta-crisis said, "And once again, your revenge is your own undoing. The very essence of Chaos."

The Darkness reached up and took of his hat, and then he took off his face, which was nothing more than yellow mask.

Eleven said, "Guardian, may I introduce you to the Yellow King, The Unspeakable One, Hastur, Brother of Cthulhu."

The Black Guardian looked up into the face of an Ood. Hastur held out the brain that he held in his hand, his own brain, and the Black Guardian backed away. "You think to challenge the Black Guardian? I am a Guardian of Time, the essence of eternity!" A glowing light grew around the Black Guardian until it consumed him completely. His voice echoed, "You shall never have rest from me, Doctor! Never!" Though the Guardian was gone, the light remained and began to consume everything that came within range of it. Everything went into Hastur, his mouth open, absorbing the energy. Cybermen, Daleks, Autons, Yetis: they all were drawn into the light.

Nine and Ten directed everyone to Compassion. In the confusion, everyone forgot about Cobb. Even with the mystical intrigue surrounding him, he was not a man to let go of a grudge. He pointed his gun at Ten. He wanted the Doctor to see it coming. "Doctor," he called. This had been part of the Black Guardian's engineered revenge. Though the Guardian was now expelled to parts unknown, the Doctor could almost hear him laughing at this small triumph. Ten knew how it would end, and just as Cobb fired, Jenny took the bullet, again. Jack and River's response was automatic, thoughtless, and Cobb was dead before the grim smile faded from his face.

All six Doctors knew that Jenny was their daughter, and in Compassion's control room, they all huddled around her. She was awake, bleeding, one way her life was ending differently. Ten was on his knees, holding her in his arms he had seen her memories of the future, knew she hadn't regenerated, knew that the Source had restored her as it terraformed Messaline, but he knew she could regenerate. Though she wasn't born of the looms, she was born of a loom born Time Lord. He knew she could regenerate.

Martha Jones joined the Doctors and examined her. "She could survive this."

"But it isn't likely."

Martha shook her head no.

"Jenny, look around you. You're in a TARDIS. This is your birthright."

Jenny looked up weakly and said, her voice breaking, "I don't want to die. There's too much I haven't done."

"Then live. When death comes, tell him no."

"Not how it works."

"It works that way for us. Jenny, this isn't the end of your life. When death comes, you don't have to go with him."

Golden smoke glowed from Jenny's hands. She had felt it before, when the Source restored her, but this was different. It was as though she was the Source. Then her entire body felt as if it was on fire: pain unreal. It felt as if her skin were being torn off from all directions. Everyone looked away as the light around her became too bright to look into. Then she stood up, a bit taller. She had black hair, cut close to her neckline. Her eyes had changed to brown. Her build remained the same, athletic, muscular, perhaps a bit narrower in the shoulders.

Then everyone had noticed another change had taken place. Looking around the ice palace appearance of the TARDIS had gone. Ivy grew along the beige walls and into the roundels and the yellow console had flowers growing around it.

Ten said, "Jenny, I believe you should take Compassion to our TARDIS. Materialize us inside the console room. She has chosen you, after all."

Jenny looked around, and felt the various parts of her new body. For a moment, she ignored the Doctor in favor of taking in her new situation, but a sudden shaking reminded her of Hastur's ravenous appetite.

Nine said, "Compassion will be heavily protected from Hastur, but she won't last forever. You need to make a decision."

Finally, Jenny said, "I don't know how."

Ten smiled and said, "We'll show you."

Hastur restrained himself from attacking Compassion, knowing that she and her current occupants were not of this universe. He gave them every chance to get back to where they belonged, but if they lingered any longer, he would have no choice. Indeed, he began to leech the energy from Compassion's extrapolation shields before Compassion finally dematerialized, going into the direction of the Rift.


	11. Goodbyes and Hellos

The TARDIS...that old, impossibly old, blue box was waiting, waiting for Compassion to materialize in her console room. Hastur devoured all around him and the center of the universe had become the police box. He worked his way to the center of the universe and it would be best if the police box wasn't there when he arrived. Then came her thief, all of him, flying to her console like the Oncoming Storm. The humans looked about them, noting that Compassion was the only TARDIS in the console room.

Rose said, "What happened to the other TARDISes?"

Four smiled and said, "My dear, there only ever was one."

The meta-crisis said to Rose, "It's a...wibbly-wobbly...timey sort of thing."

Eleven called over them. "This is going to take a little time...or a lot of time. I suppose it depends on your perspective. Listen, I have to be brilliant now. If the rest of me would like to help, you're more than welcome." Eleven danced around the console, his fingers flying, the typewriter typing, the pinball machine striking bumpers. Eight and Four assisted and the other three Doctors decided it best to stay out of the way.

River said, "Well, we just have to go home."

"Not quite. Chang Lee is still in the alternate reality. He have to collect him. Rose's parents are still there. We have to drop her and my meta-crisis off. I know you were probably looking forward to going to your own reality, Rose, but time will get grumpy if you do. Now, in spite of all we still have to do, the Rift is closing, rapidly."

Jack said, "You mean we could be trapped here?"

Ten said, "Oh, no. The TARDIS is positioned in the Rift. We will eventually be squeezed out of this universe, but if we let that happen, we could get squeezed into the Void."

Four said, "And that would just ruin our whole day." He looked down at the controls he was working and snorted in disgust. "Is this an Etch-A-Sketch?"

Eight said, "It is best that we move toward our two timelines and away from this one, allowing the Rift to close behind. Just a moment now. The TARDIS will know where to go when the Dark Reality closes."

Rose walked up to Nine and stared at him for a long while. While Eleven, Eight, and Four worked at a manic pace, the Nine watched the proceedings pensively. He turned, finally noticing Rose's scrutiny. "Come to talk me?"

Rose smiled. "You never forget your first Doctor."

Nine said, "You know, it hasn't happened yet."

"What?"

"Us, meeting. I remember it to the very final moment...Bad Wolf. That's the Black Guardian's doing. I'm not sure what will happen. The memories may fade, or I may find that I haven't existed in a long time."

"I'll never forget it, and not a day goes by that I don't wish I was still with you."

Nine smiled, wondrous at the fact that he had such a profound effect on Rose. "But you do have me. My face changes, and even my personality gets a little bent, and I may even be a half-human meta-crisis, but that man is still me, in all the ways that count, and don't forget, you fell in love with him too."

Rose smiled. "So you do fall in love."

"Of course I do. I'm not heartless. I fell in love with Jo Grant, with Sarah Jane, I'd have given all of my remaining regenerations for just another moment with Perpugilliam Brown...I loved Romana, probably the only one that I could love and be safe with. I only knew Grace for a few days, and she was the first to realize that we were getting close, fast. She did the smart thing and ran like the wind. It's hard not to fall love. With humans, understand Rose, it's impossible. You deserve happiness, and that just won't happen with a man that doesn't die."

Rose chuckled wetly, tears streaming. "I am happy, and I have someone fantastic."

She turned, not wanting him to see her crying. She saw her Doctor, the meta-crisis, a knowing smile on his face. She went to him and buried her head in his shoulder.

"I know," he said. "You said so yourself, that when I changed, and you saw I was different, you were afraid I wouldn't want you. Seeing me as I once was, I know you needed that reassurance."

At that moment, the TARDIS shook violently. Eleven called out, "Geronimo!" Then all was still. The TARDIS doors opened and Rose could see Torchwood on the other side. As Pete helped Chang Lee into the TARDIS, Rose looked back at the console, and saw Nine and Ten, her Doctors, looking at her.

Nine said, "I'll never forget you. Trust me."

"I always have," said Rose. Once more, the meta-crisis' hand holding hers hers, she walked with him into that world that had become home. The meta-crisis was her Doctor now, and he had never stopped being the Doctor. He was only John Smith for special occasions.

Finally, that Torchwood disappeared behind the TARDIS, and a Torchwood with one Toshika Sato waiting appeared before them. Chang Lee seemed miraculously cured, his memory of the Master's demise no longer involving a hungry Ood. Grace walked arm in arm with her Victorian Gentleman.

"I suppose I get to go back to 2000 San Francisco, now," she said. "Suppose I changed my mind and decided to travel with you after all."

Eight said, "Have you?"

"No, I want to, but I thought traveling with you was a bad idea then, and I am especially convinced of that after what we just went through."

"Oh, but you've witnessed the games of spiritual beings beyond anything you would have ever known otherwise."

"And the apparent death of one."

"Oh, no. The Black Guardian cannot die. He will only die when all existence is finally extinguished for the last time."

Grace's face registered slight alarm. "So...Hastur didn't devour him?"

"He did, but the thing you have to understand is that while death to us is a permanent end, death to beings like the Black Guardian is merely bump on their well traveled road. It only happened because the universe in question was dying, giving Hastur the stronger claim. If the universe were growing, the Black Guardian, being Chaos, would have owed Hastur nothing and Hastur would have had no power over him. These are the rules that gods play by."

Grace smiled. "Enlightening or not, I think I'll pursue the secrets of the universe through yoga class."

"Good, you have no idea how much damage the timeline would sustain if you changed your mind, and I might not be able to turn your offer down, regardless of the danger."

Captain Jack Harkness saluted Doctor River Song, and then shook her hand. "You know," he said, "how does a pacifist end up with friends like you and me?"

River smiled and said, "Just lucky, I suppose."

Jack observed Grace and said, "River, how would you like to be a member of Torchwood?"

"Sorry, Jack. I already know my future. Torchwood isn't a part of it."

Finally looking at River once more, he said, "Shame. You'd be a great addition. I've got say goodbye to the Doctor."

"And let me guess, you have a certain matter to attend to." River glanced over at Grace.

"Something like that."

"It was a pleasure to finally meet the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness."

Jack smiled his lopsided, wolfish grin. "You're something pretty special too, Doctor River Song."

Four and Romana made the rounds shaking everyone's hands. Romana said, "It was a pleasure, really. Thank you all."

Four said, "Really, the more we linger, the more harm we do to the timeline." Ending with Eleven, Four said, "It pleases me to no end to know that by the time I am you, my wit does not diminish a bit. The people I see intrigue me, and I think it better that I go now, before my curiosity gets the better of me." Not one person was missed and Four and Romana were the first to depart.

A look of alarm crossed Amy's face, and she asked the Doctor, "Wait, how do we all leave with only one TARDIS?"

Eleven simply smiled and said, "Watch." Even as he spoke, the ancient wheezing sound echoed through the chamber, and the TARDIS didn't vanish, but instead looked like it split in two, become two whole police boxes, one vanishing, and the other remaining behind.

Nine said, "I see a past that I'm running away from, and future that I can't get to soon enough. I guess I'll start now." Stepping into the TARDIS, he too departed.

Ten and Jenny hugged each other and he said, "Are you ready?" Martha and Donna turned, looking expectantly at Jenny. It was hard for them to get used to her new appearance, but they were sure they would.

Jenny pulled back first and said, "Sorry. I can't go with you."

"What? Why not?"

"Because you spent the rest of this lifetime believing I was dead, remember?"

Donna said, "What? That's rubbish! Why can't you stay with us? Keep learning from us!"

Ten said, "She's right. She's regenerated and has her own TARDIS. If we were to know her beyond Messaline, the damage to time would be irreparable." He regarded Jenny, his eyes filled with that eternal sorrow. "I can only hope that I remember you as I know you now." Jenny hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Donna and Martha each hugged Jenny in turn.

Ten turned to the rest of the group and said, "It's good to know I still have excellent taste in friends. Rory, Amy, River, no matter what he says to you, you are the most important parts of his life. It's going to break my heart when I have to say goodbye." Looking at River, he said, "I know I'm not supposed to remember you, and maybe I won't when the time comes. Needless to say, I owe you one." He turned to the rest. "Grace, Chang, stay safe. Jack, I'm sure I'll see you again. Until then." With one last look at Jenny, Ten, Donna, and Martha stepped into the TARDIS and departed.

Grace looked around and said, "Well, I didn't expect to meet more of the Doctor, but I'm glad I did." She turned to Eleven and said, "Don't let them mess with you. That fez rocks. I want one." This was met with chuckles all around.

Eleven said, "Grace, you'll always have a place in my heart. In fact, seeing you again made all of this worth it."

Eight said, "Well, I believe I have a Time War to fight, and a universe to save. It's good to know that my soul will mend from the devastation, as clearly it will need to, if my ninth self is any indication. Well, the next time I see you, it will be in a mirror." Eight shook Eleven's hand, hugged Amy, shook Rory's hand, and hugged River.

As Chang passed, he simply said, "Going back to normal. It was nice meeting all of you." Then Eight, Grace, and Chang departed.

Later that day, Amy stood behind her house. Memories flooded into her mind. Rory had a similar experience standing next to her. Most of it, they wanted to forget again. River was their daughter, made what she was by a vindictive race bent on conquest. River deserved better.

Rory said, "We didn't kill Hitler."

"After everything, that's the regret you come up with?"

"We saved our daughter."

"We did." Amy turned, confused. "Have these things already happened for us? Or are we remembering what is yet to come?"

"Hard to say. I do know the answers lie with the Doctor."

Amy drew Rory towards her, buried her face in his shoulder and cried. What was there to say? Time just kept being all wrong and they didn't know which way to go.

The Doctor sat in the console room, listening intently as Jenny regaled him with her adventures after the planet Messaline. He drank all of it in as he remembered his own adventures.

Adric joined him as Romana said goodbye, though she would one day defend Gallifrey from Faction Paradox and the Daleks.

He sat upon an operating table as Grace Holloway tried to reassure him, a futile gesture.

The very first word he ever spoke to Rose was, "Run!"

Benjamin Franklin invented electricity, and Martha Jones discovered he had two hearts.

Donna Noble...now there was an enigma. How had she found him twice? Then her father did the same thing.

Ah...Amelia Pond, calling for help about a scary crack in her wall, and she was so kind to give him fish fingers and custard...and an apple.

River Song, in the Library...and dread filled the Doctor. For this to happen to River...

"...and then, I was on Messaline again, with you. Well, not you, but the you I know." Jenny had changed her clothes, using some of Amy's help for her fashion sense. She wore earthy colors such as brown and green, colors that brought out her hair, not like the brown and green fatigues she had worn before her regeneration, but a dress and blouse with a silk jacket.

"And where will you go now?" asked the Doctor.

"I was thinking I could explore...with Compassion. Then we could meet and we could talk about all the things we saw and learned."

"I'd like that," and the Doctor found that he meant it. "I just...I just wish time didn't conspire against me, preventing me from really knowing you."

"Me too, father." Jenny smiled again and said, "River's going to go with me for awhile and make sure I'm okay."

"Oh, is she?"

"Yes. You know, I have to get out on my own eventually!"

"And how old are you, again?"

"Oh, this Black Guardian stuff has me so confused. Sometimes I think I was just born, and at other times, I'd swear I emerged from the progenitor five years ago."

The Doctor laughed and shook his head. She was five years old and ready to go off into the universe. Somehow, there was something strangely poetic about that. So they would part ways again, only this time, she was alive. As Jenny left the control room, River came in.

"Well?" she asked.

The Doctor said, "I have a daughter. She's alive, healthy, curious, perhaps dangerously so. She has all of the makings of an unsurpassed genius. She's just like me...only she's a she. Shame there isn't an Academy to cultivate that talent." The Doctor observed River, found himself observed back. "You know, you look at me, I look at you, one of us asks a question, the other says 'spoilers', and we turn the page in that silly diary and figure out where we are. Here's a question I'd like an answer too: aren't you expected back in prison?"

River smiled and said, "That is one of the advantages of being a time traveler. No matter how much time is left, we always have plenty of it."

"I wish that were so." The Doctor looked at River, and she looked back. "When will we meet again?"

River smiled and said, "Spoilers."

San Francisco, December 2007

Grace collapsed in her recliner. Staring up the ceiling of her townhouse, she said, "You're the one who wanted to be a doctor." She replayed the horror story she had experienced in the emergency room. A simple bypass turned into a 48 hour battle to save a little girl's life. She wished she had the power to make all childhood heart defects disappear. Not only had she been awake for 48 hours, terrified that a little girl was going to die in front of her, but she had four whole hours of sleep ahead of her before she had go back in and report to her supervisor, reassure the parents, and spend another day in the ER, again.

More than heart conditions, she hated budget cuts. If there weren't any budget cuts, there would be enough doctors and if there were enough doctors, she could sleep for 10 hours or more. Sleep? What's that? Doctors don't sleep. They live on direct caffeine deposit. She closed her eyes, the darkness enveloping her, then the phone rang and she opened her eyes. Damn! How did the sun get up so fast. She looked at the clock. She had to be at work in ten minutes. Answering the phone, it was her supervisor, the newest one, in a long line of new ones.

"Grace," said the voice on the other end, "this Director Chalmers. I hope you haven't got out the door yet. I was just calling to let you know that you've got another half a day before you're needed. You've had a rough week and I'm sure you could use some sleep."

That had been weird. The new director had been...nice. None of them were nice, and Grace had talked to Chalmers enough times to know she wasn't nice either. Grace thanked her and hung up, and without a thought, she flopped back in the recliner. She was awakened by a knock at the door. Chalmers probably came to her senses. She checked the clock again and saw that she had actually slept most of the day. She walked to the door and opened it to find a vaguely familiar man on the other side. He was dressed in all black with a trenchcoat, and there was a warm smile on his face, framed by a chiseled jaw, boyish eyes, and perfectly combed black hair.

"Hi," he said, "I don't know if you remember me, but we're both friends of the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

The man looked confused for a moment and said, "Oh, right, you are a doctor. No, not a medical doctor. The time-traveling alien with the blue box. Has two hearts, has a tendency to change his appearance to avoid death."

Grace cut off his exposition, saying, "Yes, I remember." She looked at him trying to recall him. She had almost convinced herself that those were dreams, part of her wishing they were, but still, there was a part of her that was glad they weren't. Then it occurred to her where she knew this man from. "Are you...wait. You flirted with me and convinced me to go on a date with you. You were...a real common first name and a there was a rank, Captain...Oh! Like Johnny Depp! Captain Jack...something!"

Jack couldn't keep from laughing. "Harkness. If you've got a boyfriend, I totally understand."

"I did. He was a jerk. He broke up with me in an email."

"You're kidding!"

"No. He said I wasn't Feng Shui enough. An email! Told me I wasn't Feng Shui enough!" She laughed, hardly believing she was telling all of this to a man she barely knew. "Do you want to come in?"

"I'd love to."

"I haven't had a chance to clean. I haven't been here in like two days."

Jack stepped over the threshold, noted that the living room was nearly spotless except a thin layer of dust on one of the end-tables. "I know. You've been in surgery. I've been trying to get in touch with you all week. They're running you ragged."

Grace ran up the stairs to her bedroom as she said, "It's been busy and we're short on staff." She ran into her bedroom and quickly changed from her hospital scrubs into jeans and a blouse. Running into the bathroom she brushed her teeth and fixed her hair. She didn't bother with makeup. She came back down to find Jack seated patiently on the sofa.

He said, "The Doctor seemed pretty convinced that you don't have a couch."

She laughed. "Oh, that's a long story." She sat on the couch next to him. "So I owe you a date. We were supposed to have a drink together?"

"That's right."

"Well, I'm hungry, and since you're in San Francisco, it would be a shame for you to pass up the local cuisine."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Burger and fries? I mean a real Frisco burger."

"You read my mind." She got up and said, "I've got a little time now that I wasn't expecting."

"Yeah," said Jack, "I did that. I mean, like I said, I've been trying to get in touch with you all week and you've just been so busy, so I figured you needed a break. I made a few phone calls."

Grace's jaw dropped and as she found her voice she said, "Oh, God, you saved my life. I mean, I overslept and everything!"

Jack stood and offered his elbow. Grace hooked her arm around it and they walked together to the door.

**(Almost finished here. There is an epilogue coming tying up one last loose end, and an appendix explaining some of the elements of the story. I'd love to read some reviews.)**


	12. Epilogue: Appendices I, II, and III

The shaking...the incessant shaking...and a growing Tyrannosaurus Rex. Thankfully the creature broke its neck before it got too large, but the shaking seemed only to get worse. When the shaking stopped, there was blackness...and no air. The dark man opened his eyes to look around and his eyes stung. He was underwater, salt water, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. He was not in the TARDIS anymore, and he needed to find air, so he swam towards the sun. Just in time, he broke the surface and took a deep breath. Looking around, land wasn't far off.

On the shore, the meta-crisis and Rose waited. They had both had the dream, knew that something was coming. Pete and Jackie had, of course, come with them. They stood on the sands of Darlig Ulv Stranden...Bad Wolf Bay. Something had happened in the water, but they couldn't be sure what they had seen, and then there was a man, struggling to reach shore. The Doctor and Rose ran out into the surf and helped the man to dry ground. The Doctor, upon looking the man in the face, instinctively backed away.

"Oh, thank you," said the dark man. "I have no idea what happened. I could easily have drowned." He stood and though Rose didn't recognize him, the Doctor certainly did.

Dressed completely in black, the dark man wore all velvet, and velvet gloves. He had well cut black hair, with a black beard and mustache. This man, the Doctor had once known by the name of Tremas, until his body was stolen and his mind murdered by the Doctor's arch nemesis.

"The Master." The Doctor said it as if it was a curse word.

The Master reached out with his mind but sensed only humans around him, but there was something unusual about this one human. "Forgive me for not recognizing you. Have I threatened you before?"

The Doctor laughed at the Master's joke. "Let me guess. The Rani's TARDIS got a little out of control and your landing was a bit wetter than you expected."

The Master smiled, a twinkle in his eye. "Ah, indeed. But how could a human possibly know such a thing?"

Rose was about to something but the Doctor gestured her to stop. "I'm half Time Lord."

The Master's eyes narrowed. "Is such a thing even possible? How?"

"Meta-crisis."

"And all of the participants survived?" A sly smile spread across the Master's face. "That means you can't regenerate, but the potential to awaken that ability certainly exists."

The Doctor took an abrupt step forward, nearly colliding with the Master. "What you did to Tremas, you will never do again."

Frustration spread across the Master's features. "The Doctor! Will I ever be rid of you?" The Master shook the water from his sleeves and said, "I should have known. You knew me by name, and you knew of my association with the Rani. You couldn't be some random Time Lord meta-crisis, could you?"

Rose said, "I take it you two know each other."

The Master countered, saying, "I take it you've domesticated him." The Master looked to the Doctor and said, "Meta-crisis. Two or more of you running around. I'll bet he kept the TARDIS. Where am I and how can I get off of this planet? Away from you!"

"You're in an alternate reality where Time Lords never existed."

A wave of understanding went across the Master's face. "Of course. Well, if we had a TARDIS, it would be a simple matter to..."

"We don't have a TARDIS."

The Master looked hard at the Doctor, and both the Doctor and Rose could tell that the Master was giving strong consideration to the situation.

The Master spoke and said, "Which regeneration would you be now?"

"Nine, but as I have learned there is a tenth now."

"Gracious, there are eleven of you." The Master looked from the Rose to the Doctor and back to Rose. "You miss traveling even more than he does. I can tell." He looked back to the Doctor and said, "What if I told you that a TARDIS could be grown with nothing more than a bit of your DNA, the materials here on Earth, and one human willing to facilitate the growth matrix with the life force needed?"

"I'd never do it and you know it. I'm the Doctor."

"Nobody would die, not even the sacrifice, who would live through eternity as a sentient TARDIS."

"If you think that you, the most evil and despicable man I've ever known, can convince me to participate in any of your sick experiments..."

"But you need to. I can see it. You know something of my future, and you know that like you, I represent certain key moments in time. You have to get me back, no matter how much you loathe me, but you're not willing to accept that my way is the only way. We need a TARDIS. Since they don't exist in this universe, we need to build one."

"The implications..."

"Doctor? Valeyard would be a more apt name for you; a doctor of law."

The pronouncement struck the Doctor like a death blow. It was true, while he enjoyed the idea of living a normal span of years, he secretly wished for the remainder of his regenerations, however scant few he had. Did he wish it enough to become the Valeyard? The Master did not yet know of this aspect of the Doctor's future, so was this mere coincidence?

"It needn't be a human," said the Doctor.

"Yes, but ideally, the TARDIS needs to have some measure of advanced intellect in order to function properly. It must be a creature advanced enough to understand temporal and spatial navigation. Humans may be primitive, but they fit the bill, even if only barely. Now, obviously that other universe needs my evil genius. I would welcome any other suggestions you have to get me back where I belong."

The Doctor's jaw clenched in frustration. The Master was right, damn him. The Tremas possession had definitely been one of his most clever incarnations. "This could take a great deal of time. I have no intention of forcing anyone to go through with this."

"Of course not, Doctor. Simply realize that Time Lords often fail to understand that when they can no longer travel time, Time is not as patient as they always remembered it. Half-human, Doctor...yes, time will be very impatient indeed."

The Doctor shook his head. "Don't get any ideas. I am still every bit the Holmes to your Moriarty."

The Master walked between the Doctor and Rose, Rose eying the man suspiciously. She may have never heard of him, but she learned all she needed to know from his brief conversation with the Doctor. "Can you trust him?"

The Doctor said, "Never. He'll need to be watched closely."

"Call in UNIT?"

"Call in UNIT."

The Doctor and Rose followed the Master to the car. As they explained who the Master was, the Doctor neglected to mention his evil intent, megalomania, and psychotic tendencies. The last thing Jackie and Pete needed to know was that their eldest daughter was in the same car with a murderous maniac. The Doctor and the Master locked eyes one more time, carefully evaluating each other. For hundreds of years, the Valeyard had haunted the Doctor. At his trial, it had been the Master that had revealed his identity. And here, now, was not the Master that been Harold Saxon, but the Master who had been Tremas, the very Master who had challenged the Valeyard, and exonerated the Doctor, for no other reason than he had no intention of allowing the Valeyard to surpass the Master as the Doctor's ultimate foe.

The Doctor didn't know whether his meta-crisis nature would drive him to be the Valeyard, or if his full Time Lord self in the other reality was truly destined to be the Valeyard. He would meet that future if and when it came.

**I have written three appendices, the first one features my opinion of character development, the second discusses the principle inspiration for the mythology of the Doctor Who television series, and its influence on The Six Doctors, and third, is the epilogue I had originally written for The Six Doctors, and decided against it. I decided to include it so that you may at least see what I had in mind.**

Appendix I

The Bugs Bunny Effect

One man doesn't create. He only gets the ball rolling. When asked who created Bugs Bunny, the artists at Fritz-Frieling would say that Bugs Bunny wasn't created, he was born. He started very raw and just kind of developed out of the ideas and efforts of a group of people. There were different rabbits in Warner Bros. cartoons before Bugs Bunny. One day, they all sort of came together and Bugs was just kind of...there. Nobody could say for certain where he came from. Who was this rabbit and how did he end up in an Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck picture? (Source, Looney Tunes: Fifty Years and only One Gray Hare)

This is really how a story develops. It's different for an author who dreams of the character and writes. He can say that he was the creator of his character, but not with absolute certainty. The character mutates and develops and whereas before, the character followed the author's story as he dictated, the time would eventually come when his creation became such a living force that he had to change his story as the character demanded. A writer can really begin to question his own sanity. Who's writing this, anyway? Me or my character?

When you're characters take control, that is when you are in danger. That is when your well laid plans are at the greatest risk of falling apart and you are about to paint yourself into a corner. It's not about showing your characters who's boss, as so many writers might say. It is about teaching yourself that you can't always do what you want to do, even in your own world that you are creating. Does that mean you shouldn't let your imagination run wild? Of course not, you're characters would never have been born if you hadn't let them run free once in awhile. Eventually, however, if you want to cultivate that character and introduce her to the world, you'll have to build walls around her, cultivate her, civilize her. Yes, creating a character is, in a sense, your personal Pygmalion.

Even Bugs Bunny had to be limited. Yes, insanity is also a wall to contain your character.

Appendix II

Doctor Lovecraft

When you think of Doctor Who, you think of Time Lords, and Daleks, beings with the powers of gods, sometimes even mistaken for gods. Of course, throughout the series, there is some very dark imagery, but perhaps nothing as dark as the Great Old Ones. Time Lords, Guardians, Outer Ones, Great Old Ones, Eternals, and Other Gods, among others form the basis of Doctor Who mythology. The Six Doctors explains who some of these beings are, but there is a great deal of artistic license. After all, I'm writing about Doctor Who, not the source, although I did go to the source for much of my inspiration for this story. There are plenty of Doctor Who television stories, all of them available through Amazon for very good prices, that give details regarding each of these beings. For example, Castrovalva explains a great deal about the origins of the Time Lords, the Key to Time collection contains the six television stories (an entire season of Doctor Who) that are all about the fourth Doctor and Romana's pursuit of the six pieces of the Key to Time.

If all of this seems a bit like something Howard Phillips Lovecraft would write, there is a very good reason for that: all of this is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft. He is the source for this inspiration. In considering the origins of the Doctor and his more mystical foes, such as the Black Guardian, writers like Terry Nation allowed their work to be directly influenced by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, even referencing his work to ensure the accuracy of certain details. A few examples stand out, some of which I have pointed out in this story. The Ood are almost certainly inspired by Lovecraft's dark god and Great Old One, Cthulhu (That is pronounced Ka-thul-loo), and the Impossible Planet and the Devil Below both set the stage to make the Ood the most sensible choice to characterize any Great Old One that the Doctor might encounter. If you recall, the Ood became vessels for the Devil Below. Later on, the Ood display powers reminiscent of the Great Old Ones, such as turning a human into an Ood.

In choosing which Great Old One, I strongly considered Cthulhu, but he was too obvious. Hastur was a bit obvious too, but he was a bit more enigmatic. I took some artistic license with his style of dress. Hastur wears a yellow ragged robe and yellow mask, whereas I preferred the idea of a well-manicured man. While Lovecraft began the mythology of Cthulhu in his stories, including "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Other Gods", and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", August Derleth tried to expand and categorize the Cthulhu Mythos. Unfortunately, his writings cannot be taken as Lovecraftian because the stories are a classic good versus evil motif. According to Dirk W. Mosig, Lovecraft was a mechanistic materialist. He believed in the futility of the struggle of man against cosmic forces and his stories always told of the actions of gods, cruelty perpetrated against mankind with humanity powerless to change their lot in life. Religious belief had no place here, and his gods had as little regard for mankind as humans do for insects. ( wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos)

This, more than anything, is why it was important to me that Hastur be a foe beyond the Doctor's abilities. Here was a creature that the Doctor is ultimately forced to accept because he has no power over it. Therefore, in the climax, the Doctors, having rescued two of their incarnations, can really do nothing except point out the Guardian's errors and goad him into making his final mistake. Ultimately, the Doctor, too is subject to the whims of the cosmos and must stand aside and hope he isn't swept away in the tide.

More importantly, there could not be a struggle between Hastur and the Black Guardian. Ultimately, it is the Black Guardian who commits trespass, and Hastur who must restore balance. In this context, it is not a matter of good versus evil, but of our seemingly indestructible, yet all too vulnerable protagonist bearing witness as cosmic forces beyond any comprehension uphold the cosmic balance. The Doctor doesn't bother trying to understand or explain it. He just knows he managed to outlast the Black Guardian's scheme long enough to get off the hook. As we stand powerless before the cosmic forces that will certainly crush us without thought, we are left with only our wits to help us survive.

I hope that Lovecraft would approve.

Appendix III

My Original Epilogue

**This is the epilogue I had originally written, but decided against it. Hastur plays exposition fairy a bit too much here, and the Doctor's mood seems a bit forced in the writing, and worse, I'm introducing elements that only confuse the story, but I thought it might help you see where I was going with the epilogue I ultimately decided to write. I had wanted a final meeting with Hastur. I decided against it for issues of plot and story balance. Hastur had done his job admirably. Ultimately, I decided that this epilogue simply wouldn't work. The problems in addition to what I listed above: Hastur is preaching, the Doctor gets bonus regenerations as a cheap plot device to keep the Doctor alive, it uses semantics to get the Doctor out of a known future. It becomes obvious why the Epilogue I ultimately used, featuring the Master, as he appeared to the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors: it eliminates the exposition fairy and instead, ends the previous story, leading into a new story, whereas the epilogue I abandoned cumbersomely ends the story, without any lead ins. So here it is, and you can decide for yourself whether my reasoning is sound...**

As far as the Doctor was concerned, the Ponds needed a vacation. Again, he was not leaving them behind, but it helped them to get out of the TARDIS. Also, the Doctor had plenty to think about and he always thought more clearly when nobody was about to bother him. In his eleventh incarnation, he had already been through 10 regenerations. He had entered into that dreaded double digit. He found his mind going back to another time, when Gallifrey still shined in the sky. He was thinking about it quite a bit actually. His twelfth regeneration would be his thirteenth lifetime.

He would become a man nearly as evil as the Master. What struck him was when his ninth self had declared his love for Peri. As the Valeyard, the Doctor would convince his sixth self that she had died horribly, when in fact, she would live the rest of her life as a queen. Everyone he ever loved...he couldn't help but see a connection. He was alone in the universe, with the exception of Jenny. It was only natural that he desired love, but at his age, he was giving in. He had always warned his mortal companions about such things. Never had he allowed a relationship to be anything other than platonic. Yet, his relationship with River had gone well beyond that. Somewhere along the line, he had broken his own rules, rules put in place to ensure that he and the people he loved weren't hurt by inappropriate love.

"Poor Doctor. The answer, is much more elegant than that, I assure you."

The Doctor turned to the voice, and found an Ood standing in his control room, except his eyes were red, then they were that infinite black, then they were red again...no they were both. The Doctor waved it off. He knew better than to let that sort of nonsense mess with his mind. The Doctor glared at Hastur and said, "You cannot have this universe, not while I'm around."

Hastur laughed. "Nor do I want it, Doctor. I'm afraid it won't be ripe enough for my liking for several trillion years. You know, you were wise not to challenge me when I appeared before the Guardian. I am a force of nature. I simply do what I must. I am what I am."

"Well, I suppose I can understand that. The answer to what, mind you? I become the Valeyard during my thirteenth lifetime. I've known it for four hundred years."

"Remember, Doctor, I am part of the essence of all things. I wanted to reward you, so I will break a rule, just this once. When River saved your life, she gave you all of her regenerations, regenerations that flowed into you so you will live well beyond thirteen lifetimes. You suspected that, but had no way of confirming it. I confirm it now. However, there is a Doctor that has no lives before him, that has a very human life span."

The Doctor said, "But the meta-crisis occurred during my tenth lifetime. Surely, he can't become the Valeyard. He won't regenerate to see thirteen."

It was difficult to tell, but the turn of Hastur's eyes suggested that he may be smiling. "The words of the Master are quite important, Doctor, but they didn't necessarily mean you, specifically."

"So, if the meta-crisis is alive during my twelfth regeneration, he could become the Valeyard, and the Master's prediction would still be accurate. You told Chang to warn me, didn't you? You said that my meta-crisis' song would never end."

"If you say so. I will break no more of the cosmic laws. You must discover the rest on your own."

Hastur was gone, leaving the TARDIS much emptier than he found it.

**I would like to thank everyone for sticking with me to the end. This is the first Doctor Who fanfic I've ever completed. Time to go back to some of the old ones. Please, read, review and tell me how I can make my future endeavors better. Again, thank you all very much.**


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